


Being Cavalier

by bringtheraincomprix (vespidrankka)



Series: Foggy Nights-verse [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I'm sorryyyyy, death mention in chapter 3, i just had to ok, miraculous!Sabrina, oh god this turned so angsty, sabrina is jealous, this is why i can't write nice things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-09-01 13:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16765771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vespidrankka/pseuds/bringtheraincomprix
Summary: Sabrina knows now that Nino and Carapace are one and the same, and their relationship has never been better. Life is good.Until Nino innocently surprises her with a brief peek into the world of a Parisian superhero.Opening that little black box was easy, but the results of doing so can't be undone. Even if you were only a hero for a fleeting second, the memory never really leaves you.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I caved and started writing a sequel. Reading Foggy Nights before this fic is recommended but probably not strictly necessary.
> 
> Warning: This is not going to be your typical character-gets-a-Miraculous tale.

“Guess what I’ve brought yo-ou!” Carapace sing-songed as he climbed in through the window.

Sabrina looked around from her desk as he dropped his transformation, Wayzz reappearing beside him and waving to her. She waved back, getting to her feet and crossing the room, a smile creeping onto her face. “It’s not more flowers, is it? I haven’t got any more vases!”

“It’s so much better than flowers.” Nino took something out of his bag. “Tonight… you get to go on patrol with me.” He held out the object, which Sabrina could then see was a small hexagonal box, black with odd red carvings on its surface.

Nino had told her the story of Ladybug first presenting him with the Turtle Miraculous, so Sabrina knew what that box meant. And yet…

“No way.” Sabrina stepped back. “That’s not what I think it is, is it?”

Nino nodded excitedly. “Ladybug said you could, just for one night. She and the others all have to be at some event thing tonight as civilians, so there’s nobody to patrol with me.” He looked down at the box. “I picked out this one because it just seemed perfect for you, but I don’t really know what powers it has or anything. It’s the Dog Miraculous, the kwami of teamwork. That’s all I know.”

“Are you sure this is ok?” Sabrina fretted, still not taking the box. “What if someone sees me?”

“Oh, yeah, Ladybug said I wasn’t to let you talk to anyone and to try and keep you out of sight.” Nino scratched his head. “So I’ll be doing the busier parts of the patrol route. Also, I have to take the Miraculous back to her tomorrow morning before school, so… don’t get too attached. Her words, not mine.”

Sabrina eyed the box. She couldn’t say the idea of trying out superpowers wasn’t inviting. Nino extolled the virtues of Paris from the rooftops almost daily. To be able to leap around them on her own, go where she pleased and not have to be carried by Carapace… yes, the temptation was too much to pass up.

Sabrina tentatively reached for the box, running her thumbs over the carved surface as Nino let go. He was hopping from foot to foot, his eyes gleaming, and Wayzz, resting on his shoulder, was watching closely.

“So how does this work?” Sabrina asked, looking up from the box. “The kwami isn’t going to jump out at me, right?”

“No, it’s just like a little ball of light,” Nino said. “Nothing scary, I promise.”

The box opened easily, and Sabrina only had chance to recognise the item inside as circular before it was engulfed in a pale orange orb of light. A glowing orb shot out of the box and spiralled around her, before solidifying in front of her as a small brown and white kwami with huge floppy ears.

The kwami yawned and stretched, showing off tiny fangs, then opened its large grey eyes. They settled on Sabrina, and the kwami smiled widely.

“Hello!” the kwami chirped in a high-pitched, feminine tone, her little stubby tail wagging enthusiastically. “My name is Pannu, and I’m your new best friend!”

“I’m… Sabrina,” Sabrina said hesitantly.

Pannu beamed. “That’s a nice name!” She wagged her tiny tail again, then looked around hopefully. “Do you have any chocolate?”

“I got this,” Nino said, digging in his pocket. Pannu turned to face him, and spotted Wayzz. With a squeal, she tackled him off Nino’s shoulder, spinning in the air.

“It’s been a while!” she said excitedly, her tail now wagging a mile a minute. She looked up at Nino inquisitively. “Is this your new master?”

“Yes, this is Nino,” Wayzz said. “Or Carapace.”

Nino pulled half a chocolate bar out of his pocket, and Pannu flew down to inspect it, sniffing it, then giving it a nibble. “I like him,” she declared, pulling the chocolate out of his hand and dragging it back through the air to perch on Sabrina’s shoulder.

Sabrina shot Nino an amused look as the sounds of the kwami nibbling and chewing filtered into her ear. She lifted the box again, examining the large decorated band within and the little dog logo on the velvety base beneath it. She took the band out, gently rubbing it between her fingers as she inspected it.

The two ends of the large black band were tipped by little silver dog heads, and five orange beads were strung onto the widest part. Sabrina rubbed her fingers over it, assessing it carefully. It was clearly too big to be a bracelet or anklet. Was it a collar? That might make sense, it was the dog Miraculous after all.

Nino was watching her, and after a few moments he gave a huff of laughter. “You don’t know what it is, do you?”

“Of course I do!” Sabrina said indignantly. She kept turning it over in her hands, hoping inspiration might come.

Nino chortled. “Man, I thought you’d know as soon as you saw it. I told you, this is the one I thought would be perfect for you.”

Pannu’s chewing was still in her ear, and Sabrina fought the urge to shake her head in irritation. Wayzz was chuckling, and eventually he flew to her other ear to put her out of her misery. “It’s a hairband, Miss Sabrina,” he whispered, his yellow eyes sparkling with amusement.

Sabrina immediately began berating herself for not realising it. She reached up to her head and pulled off her white hairband; comparing the two she could see that the Dog Miraculous was indeed similar in shape and size. She slipped the Miraculous onto her head, and crossed the room to examine it in the mirror. To her surprise, the beads had turned black and the little silver dog heads had vanished.

“It’s just gone camo,” Nino explained. “Like my bracelet does. Stops people recognising it as the Miraculous.”

The remains of the chocolate bar dropped to the ground and both of them jumped. Pannu circled Sabrina’s head excitedly. “That was yummy!” she squeaked. Then she looked at Sabrina, examining the headband critically. “Hmm. It suits you.” She flew up to adjust it slightly. “I guess since you know Wayzz’s holder, you understand the basics about Miraculouses?” she asked.

Sabrina nodded, and Pannu rubbed her paws together. “Good good! Ok, don’t do it just yet, but to transform, you just have to say, ‘Pannu, let’s chase!’ And when you want to detransform, you have to say, ‘Pannu, let’s rest.’ Or your transformation will drop on its own 5 minutes after you use your power.”

“What’s the power?” Sabrina and Nino asked in unison, Nino sounding considerably more excited.

“I was just getting to that!” Pannu trilled. “Your power is Pawsitivity-”

She was interrupted as Nino snorted. “Oh, Chat is going to love you,” he sniggered.

Sabrina rolled her eyes, and turned her attention back to Pannu. “The Dog Miraculous is a support Miraculous,” Pannu explained. “My power works best in conjunction with other Miraculouses. When you use it on another Miraculous holder, it provides a buff or boost when they use their power! You can use it on yourself, but all it does then is boost your general Miraculous abilities. The Miraculous of teamwork, unsurprisingly, works best as part of a team.” She sniggered a little.

Wayzz flew over to Pannu. “For example, when Pawsitivity is used on the Turtle Miraculous holder, Guardian makes a larger shield, the shield lasts longer, or it has extra defenses, like spikes. The buff is decided and controlled by the Dog Miraculous holder, so they can decide what’s best in the present situation and disable it when it’s no longer needed.”

“That’s actually a super useful power!” Nino said, impressed. “We could use it so much in akuma battles!”

Wayzz cleared his throat. “Master, need I remind you that this is only a temporary arrangement?”

Pannu cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

“There are already five of us working against Hawk Moth and Mayura,” Wayzz reminded her. “The current guardian, Tikki’s holder, thinks that’s enough. After tonight, your Miraculous will be returned to the box.”

“Oh.” Pannu’s ears drooped. “Are you sure?”

“The box is the safest place,” Wayzz said. “It’s about balancing a fighting advantage with the risk of any more Miraculouses falling into Hawk Moth’s hands.”

“That does make sense,” Pannu agreed, but her ears stayed droopy.

“We should really get going on that patrol, anyway,” Nino prompted.

Pannu brightened. “Well, one transformation is better than nothing!” she chirped, pricking up her ears again. She circled Sabrina again. “Just say the words!”

Sabrina adjusted the headband, took a deep breath, and said, “Pannu, let’s chase!”

Pannu vanished in a blaze of light, and immediately Sabrina felt a surge of energy spread down her body from the hairband. Her vision stung at the brilliant orange glow. She felt a weight settle on her hip and something pulling lightly at her hair, before the sensation stopped as quickly as it had begun. As it faded, she suddenly felt that she could run for miles without tiring, adrenaline pulsing through her veins.

She opened her eyes, only just realising that she had closed them. “Did it work?” she asked cautiously, turning to face Nino.

“I wasn’t ready,” Nino said distantly. His eyes were wide, and Sabrina felt her face warm in embarassment at his intense gaze.

“What?” she asked. She looked down at herself, seeing a sea of pale brown and white. Something brown was visible in her peripheral vision on both sides, and twisting her head around, she saw a short white-tipped object sticking out from the back of her costume. She spun around a couple of times, twisting her neck in an attempt to identify the thing.

“I WASN’T READY!” Nino complained, covering his face with his hands, and Wayzz laughed. Sabrina looked curiously at her boyfriend as he peeked out at her between his fingers.

“Does it look bad?” she asked, nervously.

“Oh, no! No!” Nino laughed nervously. “It’s actually… really adorable.”

Finally remembering her mirror, Sabrina turned to face herself. She was startled by what she saw. Her fringe was neatly parted over her forehead, and the rest of her hair was swept back behind the hairband, the tips of the sleek red locks curling to just brush her shoulders. This made space for the two large, brown, silky ears which hung from her hair just behind her actual ears. The Miraculous itself was brightly coloured again, the orange beads crowning her head and the little silver dog faces peeking out from below her human ears.

A brown and white mask surrounded her eyes; there was no sign of her glasses, though she found she could still see perfectly. There was a large, gold, diamond-shaped pendant around her neck, where Chat Noir’s bell usually hung when she was wearing that costume; it provided a comforting, familiar weight. The rest of the costume was mostly pale brown, with a white streak running down her front and onto a thick belt around her waist, from which a short white-tipped tail emerged behind her. Her gloves were white, with little black pawprints decorating her palms and fingers. Knee-high darker brown boots covered her calves. The toes were white, patterned with paw-like lines again reminiscent of Chat Noir’s costume.

Sabrina spotted something fastened to her hip just below the belt of her suit, and pulled it off. It was a boomerang, smooth and brown with white tips and the same dog logo in the centre as she had seen on the base of the Miraculous box. As she touched her finger to it, the logo slid away to show a little circular screen with a few icons on it.

“This is amazing!” Sabrina breathed, looking up at Nino.

“You’re amazing,” he responded, only snapping back to attention when Sabrina giggled shyly. “Uh- right, patrol time! Wayzz, shell on!”

Rolling his eyes, Wayzz flew into the bracelet, and Sabrina shielded her eyes as bright green light cloaked Nino in his superhero guise.

“So,” Carapace asked, pausing to look at her admiringly again, “shall we go?”

“Definitely!” Sabrina hurried past him, pushing open the window. She looked out. The roof across the street seemed far away, but the idea that she might fall was laughable now with the energy coursing through her body.

She clambered out of the window and onto the roof, pulling herself up with strength she hadn’t had before, and almost before Carapace could join her she took a huge running leap across the street.

She had slightly misjudged the jump, and landed further up the roof than she thought she would, but a few practice jumps along the row of houses soon allowed her to gauge how far she could go. Carapace grabbed her hand before she could jump again. “Hold up!” he said, but his eyes were sparkling. “What does your weapon do?”

Sabrina unclipped her boomerang, and threw it experimentally, with about the same force as she might throw a frisbee. It went spinning away through the air, showing no sign of stopping or changing direction.

“Aren’t they supposed to come back?” Sabrina asked in confusion, at which point the boomerang curbed its flight and came hurtling back. She squeaked and ducked, and the boomerang circled back, orbiting around her form in a small circle until she snatched it out of the air.

“Cool,” Carapace said. “So if I take it over here…” He grabbed the boomerang, and hopped across some rooves, then put it down. Sabrina reached out a hand cautiously, thinking about the boomerang, and it came flying back to her. This time, she caught it and clipped it onto her belt again.

“It’s like Thor’s hammer!” Carapace’s eyes were shining with excitement when he got back to her. “Oh, man, I really want to see how your power works. But then you’d have to detransform. So… race you to the Eiffel Tower?”

“I thought I was supposed to stay out of sight,” Sabrina retorted.

Carapace waved his hand. “Hardly anyone is out now, it’s 11pm on a Wednesday.”

Sabrina glanced down as they walked along the edge of the rooves; the streets below did seem deserted. She looked up at the Tower, glowing almost half the city away. “OK, we can race,” she said. “But no shortcuts!”

“You got it.” Carapace’s eyes narrowed behind his mask. “Ready, set-”

“Go!” Sabrina shrilled, throwing herself forward into a fast a run as she could. Her feet felt impossibly light on the roof tiles as they pushed her forward, driving her into the air in a graceful leap. The air snatched away Carapace’s indignant shout and her breath at the same time as the ground fell away beneath her, her hair curling against her cheeks. There was a rush of air and her feet met the next roof with no more force than a moderate kick, then she was running again, the wind tugging at her long dog ears.

She could hear Carapace, just behind her on her right side. Her hearing was definitely sharper than normal, so that she heard it when he started to steadily gain on her. Her eyes still on the Tower, she made an even larger jump- and when she landed, her feet slipped on the edge of a wet metal roof, making her give a small yelp as she struggled to regain her balance. Carapace was there suddenly and grasped her wrist, pulling her up the roof.

“Be careful,” he said wryly. “I know you feel like you can cross anything, but there is a limit to your jumping distance. Please don’t try to jump the river or anything. Bee did, once, and Ladybug had to fish her out with her yoyo.”

Sabrina laughed, still a little shaken from the near-fall, but just adjusted invisible imperfections on her suit before springing up the roof. “We’re still racing, turtle-tail,” she taunted.

“Nice, we’re doing nicknames now?” Carapace huffed, keeping pace with her. “Which reminds me, are you going to pick a superhero name or shall I do it for you?”

Sabrina vaulted over a chimney. “Given your choice of superhero name, I think I’ll choose my own.”

“Wow, rude. What’s wrong with Carapace?”

“It’s just a fancy word for ‘shell’, Nino,” Sabrina reminded him.

“More inventive than Ladybug or Chat Noir. Or Rena Rouge, for that matter.”

“That’s a fair point,” Sabrina conceded.

“You should keep with mammal Miraculous tradition. Chien Marron.”

Sabrina wrinkled her nose. “Ew, no.”

“What kind of dog are you supposed to be anyway?”

Sabrina frowned. “I’m not sure. Maybe a spaniel? There aren’t a lot of brown and white dogs with huge floppy ears.”

“Go the Ladybug route then? Épagneul.”

“I’ll consider it,” Sabrina said, in a tone that said she definitely wouldn’t. “Why does it matter, anyway? I’m not keeping the Miraculous. Nobody’s even going to see me, hopefully.”

“ _LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR!”_ a furious voice screeched.

“Uh,” Carapace said as they both skidded to a halt. “Hold that thought.”


	2. Chapter 2

Carapace pulled Sabrina behind a chimney, both of them peering out at the colourful figure who appeared a few streets away.

“I am _Comb-attant!”_ they screamed. Sabrina squinted. Long, sinuous tendrils were writhing around the figure, and she eventually realised they were long locks of hair. When they turned around, she saw a long, very sharp silver comb in their hand. “ _And after I have your Miraculouses, maybe SOME PEOPLE will take hairstyling seriously enough to leave enough time for it in their prep schedule!”_

“Gyaaaaa!” Carapace suddenly shrieked, and seconds later Sabrina knew why. Something was trying to twine around her feet, flailing furiously, and they jumped apart onto the adjacent rooves before it could get a proper hold.

Perched on a chimney, Sabrina looked down at the thing, which was still flailing around looking for something to grip. It started scaling the chimney they’d been hiding behind, a shiny mass formed of many little threads. She pricked up her ears and heard the light hissing noise it was making, undercut by the loud and rather crude ranting of Comb-attant about ‘ _Gabriel Agreste and his b-_ (Sabrina winced)- _of an_ _assistant’._

She tried her best to tune out the screeching, and soon heard footsteps heading their way. She tensed up, but relaxed when she recognised Chat and Queen Bee.

Queen Bee eyed her suspiciously, but Chat hopped up beside her to survey the scene.

“Someone has to have a word with Gabriel Agreste about making people mad,” Carapace complained, skirting nervously around the seething mass of what Sabrina now assumed to be hair in order to join them. “He’s nearly as bad as Chloe Bourgeois at this point.”

Queen Bee appeared to bristle, but before she could open her mouth, Ladybug landed amongst them. “Rena’s on her way,” she said. She looked up at Sabrina for a second, but then turned her attention to the akuma and the … hair monster. “Looks like Mayura’s joining in this one,” she commented.

“Um,” Queen Bee cut in. “Am I the only one seeing her or something?” She pointed at Sabrina. “Who the hell are you?”

“I-” Sabrina hesitated.

“I told Carapace he could lend a Miraculous to a trusted friend for the evening because everyone else was too busy to go on patrol,” Ladybug said. “I assume this is the person he gave it to.” Her knowing glance, though, told Sabrina that Ladybug knew exactly who she was. “It’s only temporary. In fact, Carapace, get her out of here.”

“But maybe she can help!” Carapace protested.

“No,” Ladybug said crossly. “This wasn’t the deal, Carapace. I told you to keep her out of sight and out of trouble.”

“Like it’s my problem we had a Hawk Moth and Mayura double bill spring up right in front of us.”

“Hey!” Rena called, hopping onto the roof. “So, what have we g- Who are _you?_ ” Her eyes widened excitedly, and she swept her gaze over Sabrina. "What's your Miraculous? I mean, a dog, obviously, but where's the jewellery? What's your power? Are you joining the team?"

“Uh,” Sabrina said uncertainly.

“This was definitely a bad idea on my part,” Ladybug said flatly.

“Hey, she’s cute, though,” Chat said swiftly, noticing Sabrina’s ears sinking dejectedly. Sabrina shot him a tiny smile, but her ears snapped up at a rapidly increasing hissing sound.

“Watch out!” she warned, as furiously lashing tendrils began to crawl over the edge of their roof; the hair-monster’s approach had been almost silent. The akuma had finished screaming curses at last and was advancing towards them, comb glinting menacingly.

“I assume the akuma’s in the comb,” Ladybug guessed, as the heroes darted out of range of the tangling creature.

“What about the plume?” Rena asked, yanking her ankle out of the creature’s grip.

Ladybug scanned the akuma, her eyes settling on a glittering silver hairgrip, clutched in the corner of Comb-attant’s lips. “That hairgrip, maybe. But as usual, we handle the akuma first.”

“You got it!” Chat Noir wrenched his baton away from a twirling lock of hair.

“And then, we’ll make some nice plaits out of this thing!” Carapace agreed.

“Ew,” Queen Bee said shortly, jumping out of range of the hair-monster.

Sabrina found herself perched uncertainly on the fringe of the battle as the heroes darted around her, ignored for the most part by both the villains and her allies. Until the akuma’s eyes met hers, and the butterfly mask abruptly flickered into life over their face.

“S-” Ladybug bit off the name. “Dog-hero, I told you to go!”

“What’s the point?” Carapace argued. “Hawk Moth’s seen her now.”

"And I want to know what she can do!" Rena said enthusiastically.

“Ugh, for all I care she can stay as long as she actually helps!” Queen Bee snapped. “Do something, dog-face, or go home!”

Sabrina looked helplessly around her. The only thing she could think of was to use her power, but she had no idea who she should use it on. Suddenly, she heard Rena shriek, and spun around to see the fox hero snared up by the akuma’s hair; she was tearing it away but being retied just as fast, her flute wrested away from her.

Slowly, like a spider with a fly trapped in its web, the akuma started pulling the fox hero closer. “I think we have our first volunteer for a restyle!” they cackled, twirling the devilishly sharp comb.

Sabrina looked quickly around, but the others were all too engaged with keeping themselves free to help Rena. Pulling her boomerang from her hip, she hesitated to aim before letting it fly.

She wasn’t sure what she was intending for it to do, but she didn’t expect the result; the force of the furiously spinning boomerang slashed straight through the tendril binding Rena, and the cut section fell limply to the roof. Rena snatched back her flute and jumped clear. “Thanks, newbie!” she called as Sabrina snatched the returning boomerang out of the air.

Sabrina shot her a nervous smile before throwing the boomerang again, with more confidence this time, and it severed the two tendrils which were threatening Queen Bee. She lifted her hand to catch it, but it didn’t return; the hair-monster, recognising the threat, caught it, ensnaring it tightly.

“Well, your usefulness was short-lived,” snorted Comb-attant, as the monster handed the boomerang over to them. “I’ll be keeping this.”

But to Sabrina’s surprise, and delighted disbelief, Comb-attant wedged the boomerang firmly into the hole in the handle of their comb. She hesitated. Could it really be this easy?

She focused hard on the boomerang, and to her delight, Comb-attant yelped as their comb was almost yanked out of their hand. Before they could act on their mistake, though, Sabrina yelled, “ _Duck!”_ and summoned the boomerang again. Ladybug, who had been steadily moving herself towards the akuma while batting away the grasping hair, realised what was happening and leaped over towards Sabrina. As the sharp comb flew at her, Sabrina threw herself down onto the roof and flashes of silver and red flew over her head.

Comb-attant screamed in fury, but Ladybug was already racing off in pursuit of the flying comb, calling for Lucky Charm as she did so, red light gleaming over the roof.

Sabrina made to stand, but to her horror, the hair-monster had already wrapped itself around her wrists, beginning to wind its way up her arms. She frantically tried to pull herself free, looking desperately around. Where was Carapace? Where were the others? Why weren’t they helping her? She briefly caught sight of Queen Bee also semi-tied, trying to wrench her weapon out of the grasp of the monster, but Carapace and Chat were nowhere to be seen.

She was feeling the first tickles on her neck by the time footsteps thudded down next to her. “Whoa!” Carapace’s voice said in alarm. “Hang on- I got you-”

Sabrina felt the snaring coils on her arms go slack; as she struggled up, shaking her arms free, she saw that he had severed off a sizeable chunk of the monster with his shield’s edge, freeing both her and Queen Bee. The three of them quickly jumped out of range of the seething monster, and Sabrina willed her heart rate to slow.

Carapace touched her hand gently, his eyes full of concern. “Are you ok?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sabrina breathed. A few streets away, Comb-attant was doing their best to catch Ladybug, Chat and Rena, but the three heroes were holding their own, Ladybug still clutching the comb and apparently spraying something from a spotted red aerosol can onto the tendrils which froze them in place. Sabrina smirked a little. Hairspray.

“Let’s deal with this, huh?” Carapace said, gesturing to the writhing hair-monster. “I think they’re OK over there without us.”

“Ew, do we have to?” Queen Bee whined.

Sabrina looked down at the creature. “We could probably tangle it up?” she suggested.

“Maybe we actually should plait it,” Carapace agreed. It had reached them again, snaking towards their ankles.

“We’d need more than three people for that,” Queen Bee disagreed. “Even if I used Swarm, that thing’s just too big.”

Sabrina frowned. “You’re right, there’s way too much-” she paused. “Wait-” She looked at Carapace, who nodded encouragingly. “I can help with that.”

“What are you talking about?” Queen Bee gave her a weird look, but Sabrina just raised her hand into the air, as if preparing to give an enthusiastic high-five.

“ _Pawsitivity!”_ she trilled. The tail on the back of her costume wagged excitedly as orange light collected in her hand, making the pawprint pattern on her palm glow. She lightly touched her palm to Queen Bee’s shoulder, and both of them felt the transfer of power. Queen Bee smirked, and raised her top.

“ _Swarm!”_ The burst of yellow energy was bigger and brighter than normal, and by the time it faded, there were twice as many Queen Bee clones ready to fly into action.

Queen Bee and Sabrina both smiled, and the clones sprang forward at the hair-creature. Business-like and organised, they set about gathering and plaiting the tendrils of hair, using their top-strings as ties. A couple of them were caught up, but quickly pulled free by the others.

Sabrina felt her focus spread thinly between the clones; Queen Bee was still set at the reins, but Sabrina had enough gentle influence to make them switch to fish-tail braiding instead of normal plaits. Queen Bee raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but then resumed focus when the braids started thrashing around. When the clones had pinned the braids down, she darted away, heading for Ladybug and Comb-attant without a word to the others.

“Nice job,” Carapace congratulated Sabrina, his grin proud. She smiled, brushing a silky ear back from her face, before she heard a shrill beeping in her ear.

“Your countdown timer,” he told her. “Remember, 5 of those, and then you de-transform whether you want to or not.”

“Should we go and help Ladybug now?” Sabrina asked uncertainly, looking over at the battle.

“Nah, she’s got it,” Carapace answered. “We’re better off staying here and keeping an eye on this creepy dude, I think.” His communicator beeped, and he glanced at it. “Yeah, Rena says they’re wrapping things up now.”

As they watched, Ladybug shouted something and waved the comb, and Chat broke off from the fight abruptly, vaulting towards Carapace and Sabrina. Ladybug kept waving the comb, looking their way, and Sabrina suddenly realised what she wanted.

Sabrina obeyed, calling out to her weapon. Ladybug let the comb go and it hurtled towards them, Comb-attant screeching crossly but almost entirely frozen now.

Sabrina forced herself to hold her nerve as the jagged comb flew at her, before jumping to catch it at just the right moment. She set the metal weapon down before wiggling her boomerang free of the handle and returning it to her hip.

“That boomerang is _awesome!”_ Chat said gleefully as he arrived with them.

Carapace smirked. “Too bad you missed her power, whiskers. You’d have loved it.”

“Aww, no way, I missed it?" Chat pouted. "But speaking of powers, may I?" He raised his hand, and Sabrina obligingly moved aside. Chat called on Cataclysm and unleashed it on the comb, the metal crumbling. Sabrina had never seen the destructive power so close up, and it made her skin prickle. Then Comb-attant’s yelling was cut off, and an akuma fluttered free of the powdered remnants of the comb.

Ladybug swung in next to them, a silver hair pin between her fingers. She snapped it, and a deep blue feather puffed out into the cold night air.

Swinging her yoyo, she caught the butterfly and plume and purified them. Queen Bee’s clones were flickering out, but the tangle-monster had abruptly disappeared already, so Sabrina let them go. The can of hairspray was tossed into the air and sparkling red ladybugs flew across Paris. It was over.

They regrouped on the street below, Rena supporting a very tearful hairstylist.

“You did a good job, newbie!” Chat said, punching Sabrina’s shoulder lightly. His eyes gleamed. “You picked a name yet?”

“Yeah, and what kind of dog are you even supposed to be?” Queen Bee said archly.

“A cavalier spaniel, I think,” Sabrina said, then gasped. “Oh! Of course, Cavalier!” She played with the name. “Yes, I like that.” She smiled, drawing herself up confidently. “You can call me Cavalier.” She glanced at them, faltering a little bit. “I guess.”

“Alright!” Chat nodded. “Well, hope to see you around soon, Cavalier! Gotta run!” He and Queen Bee ran off around the corner, and Rena waved before starting to guide the weeping akuma victim back towards the town hall.

Sabrina- Cavalier- let out her breath, hearing a second beep from her hairband. Carapace took her hand, and she squeezed it gratefully. Now the rush was dying down, she just felt strangely uneasy in the quiet, her sharp ears still expecting to hear the rustle of hair.

Carapace was grinning expectantly at Ladybug, who smiled ruefully at him before turning to Sabrina.

“You did a good job, Cavalier,” Ladybug said. “Queen Bee told me about your power, and you used it wisely.” She extended her fist, and Cavalier accepted the fist-bump. “But,” Ladybug said, “it’s also a power which would be far too dangerous in the wrong hands.” Her implication was clear.

“I understand,” Sabrina whispered. “I’m just glad I could help.”

Ladybug smiled, looking relieved that Sabrina wasn’t arguing. Carapace, however, looked ready to protest, opening his mouth.

Ladybug frowned as her earrings gave a shrill beep. “I have to run,” she said, cutting Carapace off. “Carapace, I will see you tomorrow morning.” She glanced at Sabrina. “Like we discussed. Now take Cavalier home; she’s going to de-transform soon and I’d rather nobody else saw her, transformed or otherwise.”

“OK,” Carapace conceded, but he shot Ladybug a this-isn’t-over glance. “Come on, Cavalier, this time it’s a time trial race. Get home before Pannu needs to recharge.”

“You’re on!” Sabrina said enthusiastically, and leaped up to the roof, the pair leaving Ladybug behind on the street as they hared off towards Sabrina’s estate. Sabrina took extra enjoyment in her far-reaching leaps and boundless energy, knowing she’d be missing it tomorrow.

Just over two minutes later, breathless and giggling, the two of them clambered in through Sabrina’s window. As soon as Cavalier turned around to exclaim her delight, Carapace was kissing her, his gloved hands cupping her chin. By the time they broke their embrace and opened their eyes, both of them had de-transformed, and Pannu and Wayzz were hovering side by side with wide smiles on their faces.

“It’s such a rush to be active and using my power again!” Pannu sang, her eyes sparkling. She darted down to collect the rest of the chocolate bar from the floor, and set about munching at it. Wayzz dived into Nino’s bag, emerging with a lettuce leaf and digging in eagerly. 

Sabrina smiled, her eyes shining and face flushed. “That was so amazing!” she trilled. “Thank you so much for letting me try this, Nino! And thank Ladybug for me too!”

“You know, with that performance, Ladybug might even let you keep the Miraculous permanently!” Nino exclaimed, his eyes glinting as he knitted his fingers with hers. Wayzz darted up in front of him, frowning, a fragment of lettuce clutched in his tiny paws.

“I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself, Master,” he said. “You still need to take the Miraculous back to Ladybug tomorrow. It’s her decision whether Sabrina gets to keep it.”

“She’s right, you know,” Sabrina said, but her heart felt heavy as she spoke. “If Hawk Moth or Mayura got hold of my Miraculous-”

“But they’ve never managed to steal one yet,” Nino pointed out.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Wayzz countered gravely.

“Dude, a little positivity, please? Or I guess, _pawsitivity.”_

Sabrina shoved him lightly. “Don’t you start.”

“Oh, Chat’s going to be kicking himself when he hears what he missed.”

They laughed softly, aware that it was far past midnight and her father would be sleeping downstairs. They sat on the window seat in easy silence, waiting for Wayzz to finish eating.

Finally, Wayzz was chewing seriously on his last bit of lettuce. “Well, I’m ready when you are, Master. It’s late.”

“I know, I know,” Nino said, yawning. “Guess it’s time I went home, Brini.”

Sabrina reached up obigingly to take off the Miraculous, but Nino stopped her. “I’ll come and get it tomorrow morning before school,” he told her. “That way you and Pannu can hang tonight.”

“Master-” Wayzz started to warn, with a sidelong glance at Pannu, but Nino didn’t seem to hear him. Or just didn’t want to listen.

“Wayzz, shell on,” he said, and with a last soft kiss, Carapace was gone into the night.

“He’s cute,” Pannu said mischievously, shaking the chocolate wrapper in her teeth. “Hmph,” she complained. “Do you have any more?”

“I only have hot chocolate,” Sabrina said apologetically.

“If it’s chocolate, it’s fine by me!” Pannu chirped.

“OK,” Sabrina said uncertainly. “Um… wait here? Can you do that?”

Pannu looked amused. “Yes. I don’t have to stay right by the Miraculous, you know.”

“Right, I- I was just checking.” Sabrina went downstairs. Now that the rush of the night was over, it didn’t seem real. In fact, when she pushed her door open five minutes later with a mug in her hand, she expected Pannu to be gone. And sure enough, the bed was empty.

But the Miraculous was still on her head. And- Sabrina pinched her arm, and winced. Yes, she was awake.

“Pannu?” she called quietly.

“I’m over here!” came a little voice. Sabrina looked around and saw the kwami perched on the top of her dresser, inspecting her jewellery box.

She watched as Pannu dug out a clunky black ring. “Huh,” the kwami said. “This looks like Chat Noir’s ring.”

“That’s, uh,” Sabrina felt her face burn a little with embarrassment. “My friend gave it to me. For when we used to play superheroes.”

Pannu rubbed a paw against it. “It’s been a long while since I’ve been on a team with one of Plagg’s holders. We don’t exactly have the best history together.” She started. “Which reminds me! You shouldn’t ever use Pawsitivity on Ladybug or Chat Noir. They’re more than powerful enough as it is, and boosting one and not the other will upset their balance. Oh! And by the way, you can also transmit Pawsitivity through the boomerang. You don't need to use your actual paw.”

"I- didn't have the boomerang with me," Sabrina said. "Wait, don't you know what happened while I was transformed?"

"Nope!" Pannu chimed, then sniffed the air. Her eyes brightened. “But I do know that that smells goooooood!”

“Oh, right… just wait a second.” Sabrina put the mug down, and turned to her desk, pulling a drawer open. She took out a thimble, and dipped it into the rich chocolate, before tentatively passing the little makeshift cup to the kwami.

Pannu took a little sip, and her eyes shone. “Good!” she chirruped.

Sabrina changed into her pyjamas while Pannu alternated between rifling through her possessions and greedily refilling the thimble. Then she looked around uncertainly. “Where are you going to sleep?” she asked tentatively. She touched the Miraculous. “And I kind of need to take this off to sleep.”

“As long as you don’t renounce the Miraculous, I’ll stay when you take it off!” Pannu said helpfully. She reached down into the mug again. “And I’ll sleep anywhere. I’m not picky. As long as it’s soft.”

Sabrina took the headband off and laid it on her nightstand; Pannu, sure enough, stayed where she was, smiling encouragingly.

“I thought you said you knew about Miraculouses,” she said teasingly.

“Well, Nino didn’t tell me everything,” Sabrina said uncertainly.

Dropping her thimble into the now empty mug, Pannu flew over to nuzzle Sabrina’s cheek. “It’s ok, you’ll learn quickly! And you can always ask me anything!” She wagged her tail, settling on Sabrina’s palm. “We’re going to be best friends before you know it.”

“But I have to give you back,” Sabrina frowned. “Tomorrow, remember?”

Pannu’s face fell a little, but she quickly smiled again. “Nino will talk to Ladybug,” she said confidently. “And you did such a good job tonight, she’ll just have to let you keep the Miraculous!”

Sabrina remembered Ladybug’s regretful gaze and allowed herself to entertain the idea, but then she recalled the conviction behind those blue eyes. “Maybe,” she mumbled.

Pannu patted Sabrina’s nose. “That’s the spirit, Sabrina! Positivity! We're going to have so much fun together!” Her tail wagged happily. "And eat so much chocolate!"

Sabrina giggled, but the exertion of the evening and the late hour had finally caught up with her and she yawned. She sat down on the bed and picked up one of her throw pillows, and set it next to her own pillow. “Here,” she said sleepily. “Is this ok?”

“Perfect!” Pannu nodded enthusiastically, settling onto it. Sabrina took off her glasses, turned off the light, and snuggled down under the duvet.

And then she lay awake, remembering with crisp detail the feeling of Paris stretched out before her, with her legs strong enough to run from one end of the city to the other. The surge of energy as Pawsitivity rushed through her, the feeling of Queen Bee’s Swarm clones bending to her gentle guidance. Helping to save Paris. Being Cavalier, just another Parisian superhero. Part of the team.

She wasn’t sure how long she lay there, but then she heard Pannu fidgeting. “Sabrina,” the kwami hissed. “Are you still awake?”

Sabrina feigned sleep for a moment longer, then flipped over onto her front and clicked the lamp on. “Yes,” she whispered back.

“You did really well for a first-time superhero,” Pannu told her. “And your costume is one of the cutest I’ve seen in a few centuries.”

“I thought you chose it for me?” Sabrina asked.

“No, I define the theme, but it models itself after your subconscious desires,” Pannu replied. She hummed happily. “Sorry, I know you humans like to sleep. I’m just having so much fun being out of that box, and I don’t want to waste it sleeping.”

“I can stay up a little longer,” Sabrina mumbled. She was wrong, though; even as Pannu talked enthusiastically at her, she felt her eyes closing. She was almost drifting off when Pannu slowly stopped talking; a moment later, the light clicked off, and she felt Pannu crawl under her arm to nuzzle up against her collar. Amused, but already filled with affection for the sweet little kwami, she let a tiny smile twitch at her lips as sleep took her.


	3. Chapter 3

She woke up to Pannu’s adorable little snores in her ear and the shriek of her alarm. She wasn’t fully rested, but there was an important test this morning that she couldn’t miss. She wondered idly, as she scooped a still snoring Pannu off her shoulder, if Nino remembered that they had that test.

She switched off the alarm, put on her glasses, reached for the headband and hesitated. She checked the time. She only had 40 minutes before she had to leave for school, and Carapace should be coming at some point before then to collect the Miraculous and Pannu. So she left the black hairband, dragging a hairbrush through her short red locks and sliding her usual white hairband into place instead.

She looked briefly around for the black box, but it seemed to have disappeared. Leaving Pannu still curled up on the bed, she hurried downstairs to make a bowl of cereal and a mug of hot chocolate.

“Hi Dad!” she greeted him as she passed him in the kitchen; Roger, already dressed, grunted back over his mug of coffee. He was covering the morning shift today, so he too was out of bed nice and early.

When Sabrina got back to her room, Pannu was awake. “Hey!” the kwami said indignantly, pulling the white hairband off Sabrina’s head. “What are you doing with this on?” She tossed it to the ground in distaste.

“Carapace will be here soon,” Sabrina reminded her. “But I made you some more hot chocolate.”

“Oooh, super!” Pannu shot over to the mug when Sabrina set it down, grabbing her thimble from the old mug, and Sabrina replaced her white hairband before sitting down to eat her cereal. The minutes ticked by. Sabrina got dressed, read over her notes for the test, checked her bag, applied her lipstick. Pannu talked almost non-stop, drawing Sabrina into enthusing over one thing or another, questioning each other, making little jokes. And still, nothing. Ten minutes before she was meant to leave, she heard her father calling out a goodbye, she responded, and the door closed.

Pannu followed her downstairs, quizzically inspecting the family pictures on the walls. In the kitchen, Sabrina set about making her lunch, including a packet of little chocolate biscuits, keeping her ears open for the sound of footsteps in her room. 

"If you don't mind my asking," Pannu said quietly, "Who's the lady in some of these pictures?"

Sabrina looked up. Pannu was hovering in front of the mantelpiece in the living room, so Sabrina knew who she was talking about. 

"That's my mom." Sabrina said numbly. It had been so long since she'd had to talk about her missing parent. "I never really knew her."

Pannu flew back into the kitchen. "What happened to her?" she asked quietly, sensing Sabrina's sudden quiet, introspective mood.

"She died," Sabrina said softly, pausing her hands as she sliced bread. "When I was four months old. She was just crossing the street, on her way home from the corner shop, and a drunk driver-" She closed her eyes. "She was only 23. Worked in a florist's; Dad thinks that's why I like flowers so much." She tried a forced smile, but Pannu's eyes were wide with horror, so she looked away. "She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dad started training to be a police officer a couple of months after that. He says I might have his hair and his eyes, but I still look a lot like her." She sighed. "I wish I could remember her, even a little."

Pannu hesitated, then cuddled up against Sabrina's neck. "I'm so sorry, Sabrina," she murmured.

"It's OK," Sabrina said gently, resuming cutting her sandwich. "It's not like I can properly miss her. We were only together for a little while, and I don't even remember any of it."

"You miss what you might have had, though," Pannu said softly. "I've lost holders before, suddenly or slowly, and it never gets easier. I still think about what heroes they could have been if they or I had been allowed to stay."

Sabrina looked up at Pannu's serious grey eyes, and smiled sadly. "Carapace should be here soon," she said.

Pannu's ears drooped, but then she got a mischievous glint in her eye. "Well, I can always hope he doesn't turn up," she said playfully, and Sabrina gave a little chuckle, wrapping up the sandwich.

Five minutes passed of Sabrina pacing around the house, and then it was time to leave, and Carapace had still not appeared.

Sabrina hurried back up to her room to double check, but it was still empty.

“He must have convinced Ladybug to let me stay!” Pannu declared.

“I- I guess,” Sabrina murmured, allowing a spark of hope to light in her heart.

“Put the hairband on, then!” Pannu encouraged, pulling the white one off Sabrina's head again. “You won’t be able to be a hero if you can’t transform!”

Sabrina picked up the hairband, slipping it onto her head. She adjusted her hair around it, smiling into the mirror. It just felt right.

“Come on, then!” Pannu circled her gleefully. “You don’t want to be late, do you?”

“Wait, where are you going to hide?” Sabrina asked suddenly. Her outfit didn’t have any pockets or loose sleeves where she might hide the kwami.

“In your bag, silly!” Pannu giggled. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on those chocolate biscuits for you!”

Sabrina walked to school with a spring in her step. She half-expected Chloe to comment on her new hairband, probably to criticise it, but the blonde barely glanced at it before bursting into a soliloquy about the fashion show she’d been at the night before, and the ‘revolting’ akuma who had interrupted it.

Sabrina remembered the lashing tendrils of hair wrapping around her arms, and found it remarkably easy to agree with Chloe on that one.

She kept slipping her hand into her bag, still a little nervous, and Pannu would gently touch it. After stopping by the vending machine to buy a chocolate bar and slip it into her bag, Sabrina followed Chloe to their first lesson, and the test. She still hadn’t seen Nino, and for the first time she started to worry that actually, something had happened to him and that was why he hadn’t come to collect Pannu.

She needn’t have worried, though; the test had just started when Nino walked into class, apologising profusely for his lateness. He glanced at Sabrina, his eyes flicked to the hairband, and he winked. Sabrina smiled and blushed a little before turning her attention back to her test paper, ignoring Chloe’s disgusted eyeroll.

Breaktime arrived, and Sabrina tried to catch Nino’s eye, but he had been dragged away by Alya and Adrien before she could get away from Chloe. Slightly irritated, she instead took the chance to check the Ladyblog, standing with Chloe in the courtyard while Chloe did her usual act of pretending nobody else was there, typing on her phone like she had something important to do, while actually she was also just on the Ladyblog. There were only sparse reports on Comb-attant, and none of them mentioned a new hero. Sabrina supposed there hadn’t been many people able to record or even see the rooftop battle, but she couldn’t help feeling a little bit disappointed.

“I like your new hairband, Sabrina,” Adrien said as he brushed past her on the way back into class.

“Oh! Uh- thanks?” Sabrina squeaked. Chloe gave her a cursory, appraising look.

“Yeah, I guess it’s maybe a little less tacky than your normal one,” Chloe said, rolling her eyes and adjusting the silver comb at the top of her ponytail. “Come on, Sabrina.”

Adrien smiled at her like he knew something before sitting down, and Sabrina shoved her hand into her bag again. Pannu’s gentle paws were a little sticky now, but the little squeeze of her finger was still reassuring. She desperately wanted to talk to Nino, though.

Two hours of French History stood between them now, though, and Sabrina rubbed a bit of melted chocolate off her notebook before opening it up to start writing.

Sabrina was walking behind Chloe to the lunch hall when a hand grabbed her shoulder; with a yelp, she was pulled into an empty classroom. To her surprise, Ladybug was standing there, holding her hand out.

“You know why I’m here,” she hissed before Sabrina could say anything. “The Miraculous, give it back.”

Sabrina felt her heart sink. She should have known. Before she could speak, though, she felt her bag shake crossly.

“Does she have to?” Pannu whined, flitting out of Sabrina’s bag with chocolate smeared around her mouth. “She did such a good job last night!”

“And last night, I explained to Sabrina why she couldn’t keep you.” Ladybug crossed her arms. “I told Carapace to bring you back to me this morning, but he chose to ignore me, and I’ll be having words with him later.”

Pannu bristled. “Are you going to explain to _me_ why I can’t stay?”

“It’s not safe,” Ladybug said sharply. “Yours is yet another Miraculous Hawk Moth could get potentially get his hands on, and we definitely don’t need him boosting his powers again. Remember Hero’s Day?” She opened her palm insistently. “Come on, Sabrina, before someone disturbs us.”

Sabrina reached up slowly and took off the hairband, hesitating just a second as Ladybug reached for it. Ladybug held onto one side of it, but Sabrina couldn’t quite make herself let go yet. She hadn’t realised, until now how happy she had been when she’d thought she was being allowed to keep it.

“Are you really sure I can’t stay?” Pannu said quietly. She had flown over to nuzzle Sabrina’s cheek. “I really like her. And she likes me.” She looked at Sabrina, who nodded with a sad smile. Pannu looked back at Ladybug with large, shiny eyes. “We’re best friends.”

Ladybug sighed. “This is why I told Carapace to take you back last night, before you both had time to get attached. I’m sorry, Pannu, but I absolutely cannot let you stay. Your powers would just be far too dangerous in Hawk Moth’s hands. Now come on, I have to get out of here before someone sees me.”

Pannu pouted, and hung back a little more, but after briefly hugging Sabrina’s cheek, she obligingly flashed into an orb of light and fused back into the headband, turning it back into its colourful form. Sabrina loosened her fingers on it, keeping her grip just a fraction too long as Ladybug took it. The faint buzz of power and promise it had been quietly instilling left her as it left her possession.

“Thank you,” Ladybug said, tucking the hairband safely away. She hopped up onto a desk, prying the window open. Noticing Sabrina’s downcast expression, Ladybug paused. “You might see her again,” she said. “I won’t promise, but there might be a time we need Cavalier’s help again, and if that happens, I’ll be glad to bring the Miraculous to you myself.”

Then she was gone, and Sabrina felt abruptly and unusually lonely. She pushed her hand into her bag, and felt her heart constrict as no little paws squeezed her finger. Impossibly, she had already gotten so used to Pannu’s company, even though it had been less than 24 hours since she’d met the little kwami. Digging around in her bag, she took out the half-eaten chocolate bar, looking at the tiny nibble marks with a dejected expression.

Chloe didn’t notice anything when Sabrina rejoined her; she was arguing with Lila about the events of the fashion show the night before. Sabrina was glad of her friend’s distraction, picking at the sandwiches she’d made that morning while Pannu had been comforting her. The chocolate biscuits she had packed were missing, replaced by a wrapper and a pile of crumbs; she smiled sadly.

Without a hairband her hair kept falling into her face, so nobody saw when tears started to glitter in her eyes.

After lunch, Chloe took her bag back and declared that she was going to reapply her make-up, _alone_ , so Sabrina was left to her own devices. Chloe had only been gone a minute when Nino hurried across the courtyard. He sat down next to her on the bench, and she leaned on his shoulder, casting a brief glance around to check for eavesdroppers before she spoke.

“I wish you hadn’t brought me the Miraculous.” Sabrina whispered. “Now I’m always going to miss it. Miss her.”

“Wait- Ladybug took it back?” Nino asked, pulling away and suddenly noticing that the hairband was missing. He actually seemed surprised.

“She did say she had to last night,” Sabrina said. “So why didn’t you come and pick it up this morning?”

“Oh, uh, overslept. My bad.” Nino rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her, she’ll come around.”

“But she’s right, Nino,” Sabrina reminded him. “Imagine if Hawk Moth could use Pawsitivity to boost his power all the time. It would be Hero’s Day, every day.”

“And the Dog Miraculous is a particularly easy one to steal,” Wayzz murmured, creeping out from under Nino’s hat to look sympathetically at Sabrina.

“Yeah, well, so is the Bee,” Nino argued. “And Queen Bee still gets to hold onto that. And if that got stolen? I’d love to fight ten Mayuras at once, that would be brilliant-”

“Nino,” Sabrina took his hand. “Queen Bee is a good hero, you know that. Ladybug knows what she’s doing.”

“You’d be a good hero, too,” Nino said morosely.

“I don’t know about that,” Sabrina smiled. “Although Pannu seemed to think so too.” She bit her lip, feeling tears prickling her eyes again.

Wayzz was still looking at her with some regret. “You should not have left Pannu with Sabrina overnight, Master,” he said softly. “Pannu is a very affectionate kwami, and she gets more attached more quickly than most of us do to our holders. It’s in her nature to be very loyal.”

Nino huffed. “I just thought it would be nice for them to have a bit more time together.”

“But now you’ve made them both miserable,” Wayzz told him. “I have seen Pannu lose holders before, and it always breaks her heart. It can even affect her ability to use Pawsitivity with new holders.” He shook his head. “We have warned her about loving too easily, but it’s the way she has always been. Pannu loves nothing more than friendship, and she still pines after holders she lost centuries ago.”

“So Pannu is going to be sad too?” Sabrina asked, looking up at the turtle kwami.

“Most certainly,” Wayzz said solemnly.

Sabrina sighed. “Oh, Nino, how could you ever have thought this was a good idea?”

Nino bit his lip, slipping his arm around her. “I’m sorry,” he said eventually. “I guess I just got too excited about getting to show you what being a hero was like.”

“I did offer my services, Master.”

“I know, little dude.”

Sabrina smiled a little at the thought. “Thanks, Wayzz, but I don’t think I suit green.”

The kwami gave her another sad smile, before retreating under the hat. Nino squeezed her shoulder. “You’ll be OK,” he reassured. “I can try to talk to Ladybug, maybe even ask her to let Pannu come and see you. I think kwami can do that.”

“I think that would make it worse,” Sabrina sighed, wrapping her arms around him. “For her, at least, from what Wayzz said. I didn’t have the Miraculous for that long… I can’t miss it that much, surely?” The words echoed through her, so similar to her assertions to Pannu that morning. She hoped this wouldn't be the same, that she wouldn't start to miss what could have been.

She did. Walking home, Sabrina heard the sequence of pings on her phone that indicated an akuma attack. Sure enough, Chat and Queen Bee shot by overhead a couple of minutes later, and she found herself staring enviously after them as they leaped freely across the rooves.

 _Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return._ Those words, read once in a research session for an art class, surfaced in Sabrina’s mind without her really thinking about it. With her new knowledge that Miraculouses had been around for hundreds of years, she wondered suddenly if Leonardo da Vinci too had known the feeling and subsequent loss of a Miraculous. After all, how else could he know what it was to long for flight?

Even without the thrill of superpowers, Pannu had been so sweet and comforting to talk to, and it already felt like she’d known the little dog kwami far longer than she really had. She knew Nino had only been trying to be nice by giving her a taste of being a Miraculous holder, but now she had both gained and lost a new friend and the most fun she’d had in ages all at once.

In fact, she couldn’t help but feel a little angry at Nino. It was fine for him, he got to keep Wayzz and go prancing across Paris whenever he liked. And who was Ladybug to decide who got to have a Miraculous and who didn’t? They were good heroes, sure, but maybe she could have been too, given the chance, so why did Rena and Queen Bee deserve it more than her, in fact, what made Ladybug and Chat so much more worthy -

Sabrina stopped. She was getting angry and worked up, and everyone in Paris knew that was potentially hazardous. There was an akuma active already right now, so she should be safe, but in future she wouldn’t be. What if she were to be akumatised into a twisted version of Cavalier? Then Ladybug would think her too unstable and jealous to ever hold a Miraculous, and she’d never even have a chance of seeing Pannu again.

At home, she cleared up the empty mugs from her room. She slipped her normal hairband back into place, and tucked away the throw pillow. Cleared the empty wrappers and half-eaten chocolates out of her bag.

When she came back upstairs after dropping the mugs in the kitchen, she pushed the door open and out of some sore desire of her heart rather than any logical thought, she called softly, “Pannu?”

There was no answer. Of course there wasn’t, Sabrina thought crossly, pulling the white hairband off and throwing it aside. She was being silly. But thinking of Pannu out there, sitting alone in her Miraculous, probably missing her too, made Sabrina’s heart ache.

Roger came home to find her in tears on the sofa, watching _Marley & Me _with a packet of chocolate biscuits tossed unopened to the other end of the sofa. He watched the screen in confusion. The dog wasn’t even old yet, he was just running around in a field, causing trouble. So Roger had barely dropped his coat before he was on his way to the kitchen to pull out the brownie ingredients.

Sabrina cheered up enough to help make them, but she wouldn’t tell him what was wrong and he was incredibly surprised when the first bite of brownie made her tear up again. So instead, Roger just held her close and let her cry, and by the time they finished the movie, Sabrina had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

Roger carried her up to her room, took off her glasses and turned off the lights. Then he picked up his laptop and spent a few hours trawling the internet for help. He glanced at the movie description. Maybe one of her friends’ dogs had died? Though as far as he knew, Chloe and Nino didn’t have dogs.

He shook his head, turning back to the single-dad-with-teenage-daughter help forums. It was times like this that he missed his wife the most. “You would have known what to do,” he murmured, looking up at the photo on the fireplace in which his wife beamed up at the camera, a tiny baby in her arms.

Sabrina woke up a few hours later, and was startled to find herself in her room. Groggily she got up, glancing at the time. It was the early hours of the morning. She changed into her pyjamas and crossed the room on her way to get a glass of water, when she stepped on something small and hard. She yelped, and squinted, before leaning down to pick it up.

It was the thimble, still a little sticky with hot chocolate residue. Sabrina looked at the dim silver glint, forgetting about the pain in her foot. She took the thimble to the kitchen with her, rinsing it off in the sink and then bringing it back upstairs with the glass of water. Putting the water on her nightstand, she turned around to her desk.

She slid open the bottom drawer on her desk. All it contained was a flat, rectangular box. Lifting the lid tentatively, the moonlight caught the glitter of a particular rose-shaped pin. Making sure her fingers didn’t touch the pin, and glancing around nervously as if a butterfly might be closing in, Sabrina nestled the thimble in next to the pin, and closed the box. Then she nudged the drawer closed.

And just like that, all the signs of Pannu and Cavalier were out of her sight, filed away only in her memories just like Vanisher. She was just Sabrina again, left to only remember the fleeting moment that she had gone running over the Parisian rooftops, feeling like her feet could carry her until she reached the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End!
> 
> just kidding
> 
> i'm not that mean  
> or am I


	4. Chapter 4

Waking up the next day brought a little wrench at the lack of Pannu’s snoring, which was stupid, Sabrina told herself, because she’d literally never woken up to it besides yesterday. Going through her morning routine was equally jarring without Pannu’s chatter to accompany it. A hollow had opened in her life so rapidly that it scared her, and she found herself hurrying to get out of the house, so that she arrived at the school almost twenty minutes early.

She sat down on the steps to wait for Chloe, watching the other students slowly arrive. Marinette, on her way up the steps with Alya, paused next to her.

“Are you OK, Sabrina?” she asked. “Only… you seemed upset yesterday when you were sitting with Nino.”

 _She was watching? What if she saw Wayzz, what if she overheard-_ Sabrina exhaled slowly. Marinette was just being nosy. She didn’t know anything. She was overreacting.

“I’m fine,” Sabrina said shortly. As Chloe’s car pulled up, she got to her feet and shot a sharp glare at Marinette, an edge creeping into her voice. “And even if I wasn’t, maybe you shouldn’t be spying on other people’s conversations.”

Marinette’s eyes narrowed. “Fine. Sorry I asked.” She hurried up the steps after Alya, and Sabrina hesitated. Had she been too harsh? Then she was opening the limousine door and Chloe had dropped her bag into her arms, and she had to switch her brain to placating Chloe about whatever she was complaining about this morning.

Chloe kept talking all the way into the classroom and until they reached their desks, at which point she whipped out a compact mirror and started checking her makeup.

“Back to your normal hairband, Sabrina?” Adrien asked curiously as she passed his desk. Sabrina looked at him.

“Oh, yes,” she said dully. “I… lost the other one.”

“Oh.” Adrien glanced at Nino, for some reason. “That’s a shame.”

“Um. Yes,” Sabrina said, a little perplexed that Adrien had been so attentive to her accessories. She sat down next to Chloe, unable to resist slipping her hand into her bag as she set it down on the seat. Nothing happened, of course, but that brief moment where she could fool herself into thinking something would was nice.

The pang of Pannu’s absence didn’t lessen over the following days. Carapace visited almost every day, but she didn’t drink any hot chocolate with him.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured again, that Friday night as he sipped his drink.

“No, no, it’s all right,” Sabrina muttered. She was sitting on her bed with Wayzz perched on her shoulder, and she raised her hand a couple of times to scratch his head with a finger, but both of them knew he wasn’t the kwami she wanted. “It was enough to try it once.” Her tone was forced, though, and she knew he had heard it.

Nino stood up, leaving his mug behind, and went over to sit beside her, putting an arm around her shoulder. “Sabrina, I know you don’t mean that. I thought about it the other day, how I felt after Anansi when Ladybug took back Wayzz. It felt real bad, and that was before I even got to know the little dude. It was weird; missing something I’d had for like, half an hour.”

Sabrina pulled away a little. “I can’t believe you overslept,” she muttered. “That was what made it worse. You didn’t come to get her, you let us both hope.”

Nino said nothing, and she glanced at his guilty expression. She stood up. “Nino Lahiffe, you didn’t.”

“IIII… kinda thought LB wouldn’t go through with it,” Nino muttered. “I thought she’d think it over, and realise you’d be a good Miraculous holder. So I just… left Pannu with you.” He looked up at her incredulous face. “I see now, and I saw on Monday night, that that was a very bad idea.” He winced, as if at a painful memory, and nursed a fading circular bruise on his arm which Sabrina hadn’t previously noticed.

“How could you have possibly thought Ladybug wasn’t serious?” Sabrina questioned. “She was so clear on Sunday.”

“I hoped,” Nino sighed.

Sabrina stayed quiet for a little longer, then kissed his forehead and took the mug away. “I think maybe you should go,” she said. “I need some time.”

“All right,” Nino said unhappily.

“I’m sure I’ll forgive you,” Sabrina muttered. “Eventually.”

“I hope so,” Nino whispered, but Sabrina turned away as he called for his transformation. “Just… keep in touch, all right?” he said uncertainly. Sabrina said nothing, and when she turned around a few seconds later he was gone.

She threw herself onto her bed, glad he was gone but now lonely again. She hugged a stuffed animal close to her chest, staring up at the ceiling. Her mind was a whirlpool of negative emotion, but none of them were close enough to the surface to bring a butterfly calling… she settled into trying to organise them, and before she knew it, she was asleep.

Life kept up its steady pace, and soon two weeks had passed since she’d lost her kwami. She almost couldn’t remember what Pannu’s voice had sounded like any more. True to his word, Nino kept his distance, so much that Chloe eagerly asked if they had ‘finally broken up’. Sabrina grumpily rejected the idea, and saw Nino brighten across the classroom, bringing a little touch of warmth to her cheeks. It wouldn’t be long until she forgave him. He’d dared to hope, and she found it a little hypocritical to fault him for that, even if his hope had been sorely misplaced.

Then, something changed Sabrina’s outlook.

Chloe had swept off for her private make-up reapplication session at lunch, and Sabrina was a little stranded. She’d grown used to going to find Nino, but she still wasn’t quite ready to reconcile with him and besides, he was laughing with Kim and Rose across the hall. Looking a little to their left, though, showed her a dusty brown-haired boy with his head down on a bench, sitting alone. She didn’t quite remember his name, but she recognised him from her drama class, she thought. He was normally accompanied by a more bombastic purple-haired boy, but there was no sign of that boy today.

Normally she would have shrugged it off, but something made her head over to him anyway. She hesitated before sitting down next to him, and he glanced up with reddened brown eyes.

“Are you ok?” she asked. He grunted, and shifted away from her. Once that would have been enough for her and she would have shot a sharp comment at him and left, but that same strange something made her persist.

“You’re in my drama class, right? Isn’t your friend here today?” Sabrina scanned the lunch room for that lilac mop, but it was nowhere. “Sorry, I don’t remember your name, or his.”

He sniffed, but didn’t answer her. She smiled in what she hoped was a comforting way. “Sorry, I know we haven’t spoken much. I’m Sabrina. You can tell me what’s wrong, I won’t judge. Or tell Chloe. I promise.”

He gave her a suspicious look. She rolled her eyes playfully. “Come on, I’m not _awful._ You’re upset, I’m just trying to cheer you up.” _For some reason._

The boy sniffed again, and Sabrina dug in her bag for the bag of luxury tissues she carried for Chloe’s makeup emergencies. She passed him one, watched him dab his eyes and crumple it into his lap. The boy glanced at her patient turquoise eyes, and finally seemed to relent. “Nev’s gone,” came his hollow mumble. “His family moved to Spain over the weekend. He only told me on Friday. Said he didn’t want me to be sad on the last week we had together.”

Sabrina’s eyes widened. “That’s terrible,” she whispered sincerely. “I’m so sorry.”

“It would have been fine if he’d told me!” he protested, sweeping his hair back from his face. “I wouldn’t have cried all week or anything. We could have had proper fun instead of just going along like normal! I had things I wanted to talk to him about, places I wanted to take him to see. But now I’m not gonna see him again, and it sucks.”

“Didn’t he give you his address?” Sabrina questioned. “Don’t you still have his phone number? Surely you can still talk, maybe visit occasionally.”

“Well yeah, but he’s gonna have a load of new friends! He makes friends easy.” The boy scuffed his trainer moodily against the floor. “I don’t know why he even hung out with me anyway. Nobody else even talks to me.”

“I’m talking to you,” Sabrina pointed out lightly. “Believe me, I know how you feel… I lost a friend recently, too. And I especially know how it feels to only have one and lose that one, as well.” Vanisher closed a hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it off, forcing herself to brighten for his sake. “But now, I have three!” She counted Nino and Carapace separately, hoping he wouldn’t ask for a list. “Hopefully more, if I keep trying.”

He was looking at her doubtfully, but he wasn’t crying any more and Chloe had just reappeared, so she nudged him with her shoulder as she stood. “I have to go now, but come and talk to me in drama this afternoon, ok?” she asked. “What’s your name, again?”

“Uhh, Dimitri,” he said. “And uh, thanks?”

“Happy to help!” Sabrina chirped, and she found, somewhat surprisingly, that she _was._ When she got back to Chloe and glanced over at the bench, Dimitri was gone, but she caught a different flicker of movement as a purple butterfly arrived at the bench, fluttered briefly over it as if confused, and then darted quickly out of the courtyard again, vanishing over the top of the roof.

She got to talk more with Dimitri in drama class, and she also managed to get him to talk to her normal partner, a quiet boy called Lane. Lane came out of his shell at Sabrina’s new pep, and the three got on like a house on fire, so Dimitri was laughing by the time they parted ways at the end of class. It made Sabrina feel weirdly happy again. The realisation that she prevented an akuma with kind words only hit her when she got home, and she wondered what made her even go over to Dimitri in the first place.

 _He was sad, so I wanted to comfort him._ The thought rose unbidden, but felt right. _It’s the right thing to do, and being nice can never be anything but positive._

The internal voice wouldn’t shut up even as she sat there doing her homework, as she was heating the leftovers in the microwave. At times she almost felt like Pannu was chatting to her inside her head.

Maybe if she could listen to it, help more people, stop more akumas being created… spread a little positivity, even, Ladybug might be persuaded to reconsider her stance on letting Sabrina have the Dog Miraculous. It was a tempting thought, and when she had finished her homework, she allowed herself to indulge in it a little.

She heard the door slam downstairs at about 7pm, and started down the stairs to greet her father when she heard him muttering curses and slamming around in the kitchen. Descending more slowly, she peeked around the corner to see him red-faced and angry, starting to make himself a coffee.

“Dad?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Ambroise,” Roger growls, moodily dumping three spoonfuls of sugar into the mug. “Damn idiot muddled some evidence. I’ve been trying to get this swindler sent down for years, and now the crook’s going to get off lightly. I got to the station this afternoon to find everyone trying to apologise for little fresh-faced Constable Ambroise to me. He had the morning shift and wasn’t even brave enough to stay and tell me himself. Well, we’re on shift tomorrow morning together, and he’ll hear it from me then.”

Sabrina edged up next to him to stop him putting more sugar in his mug. “I’m sure it was an innocent mistake,” she said gently.

“I taught him the filing system for evidence last week,” Roger grunted. “There’s no excuse.”

“Then he must be really new?”

“He’s been on the force two weeks.” Roger’s anger was cooling slightly, but he was still scowling.

Sabrina looked at him. “Surely you made mistakes when you were a new officer?”

“Not any that let a serial thief walk out of jail after a month!” Roger tightened his grip on his mug, his eyes flashing.

“You’ve caught him before and you’ll catch him again,” Sabrina soothed. “But I think it’s a little harsh to get so angry at Ambroise. If this was so important, why was he even in charge of the evidence anyway?”

“I thought I could trust him with a bit of admin,” Roger growled. “Obviously not.”

“Dad, relax,” Sabrina said, a little impatience creeping into her tone. “What kinds of mistakes did you make when you started?”

Roger didn’t answer, staring down into his coffee as he stirred it.

“Dad.”

“I,” Roger glanced at her. “In my first week I had to park the sergeant’s patrol car and I scraped it past a lamppost and took the wing-mirror off. But that’s a different matter entirely! And-”

“But how did you feel when you did that?” Sabrina continued, cutting off his beginning tirade.

“Guilty,” Roger muttered. “And… scared.” His eyebrows furrowed further. “But I still went before the sergeant and told him myself! Ambroise couldn’t even face me.”

“I’m not really surprised if you were going to shout at him!” Sabrina raises her eyebrows. “Did the sergeant shout at you?”

Her father is definitely looking a little guilty now. “No. He wasn’t pleased, but he thanked me for admitting it and warned me I better not be so careless again.”

“And were you?”

“No. I was extra careful with parking after that.”

Sabrina patted his shoulder. “And I doubt Ambroise will make the same mistake again either. At least let him have the chance to explain himself and apologise instead of yelling at him. He must be feeling pretty worried about coming to work tomorrow morning, and you wouldn’t want him to quit, would you?”

“No. He’s been a good new recruit. Up until this, anyway.”

Sabrina smiled. “And I’m sure you’ll get another chance to catch that thief if that month isn’t enough to put him off. Plus Ambroise has probably been hearing it from the others all day, he doesn’t need you to yell as well.”

Roger gave a heavy sigh, and finally smiled. “All right, Sabrina. I’ll let him off with a brief lecture and repeat lesson on the evidence system.”

Sabrina hugged his arm. “Thanks, Dad. Now, do you want a new coffee-” she giggled as he raised it to his lips and immediately pulled a face, “without so much sugar?”

Roger put the mug down and smiled ruefully. “Yes, please.” He watched her thoughtfully as she rinsed out the mug and began boiling the kettle again. “You know, your mother would have stood up for Ambroise as well. She was a real soft heart.”

Sabrina paused. She rarely heard her father talk about her mother, and she listened keenly.

His eyes went distant, his smile still on his lips. “The smallest things could make her cry, but the smallest things would make her laugh, as well. She had such an interesting laugh, like… like a crow cawing, almost.” He chuckled. “It wasn’t a pretty laugh, but I heard it so much and she didn’t mind that it sounded odd, so I loved it anyway.”

Sabrina tried to imagine what a laugh like that would sound like, but couldn’t. The sense of loss was coming back, with a different focus this time, and the smile slid from her face.

Roger noticed, and hurried over. “Sabrina,” he murmured. “I’m sorry. I just got caught up… you remind me of her more and more these days.”

“I wish I could remember her,” Sabrina said softly, hugging him gently. “Even a little bit.”

“So do I, carrot cake,” Roger said, stroking her hair. “She loved you, so much. I was almost jealous, she never had time for me after you were born.” He chuckled again. “Now I wonder if maybe deep down she knew she didn’t have long to spend with you.”

Sabrina felt tears starting to prickle in her eyes, but she didn’t stop him as he carried on. “I can’t be her, and I can’t forgive that idiot driver for what she did to us. She would have, though.” Sabrina can’t see his face, but she knows he’s holding back tears. “Josie held grudges like they were butter.” He laughed, and Sabrina echoed him, the sound ringing hollow over the hum of the kettle.

“Did you ever notice I had a tattoo?” Roger asked softly.

“What? Where?” Sabrina pulled away, looking up at him in confusion.

“You wouldn’t have much opportunity, I just wondered if you’d noticed it when I used to take you swimming. You never asked about it, though, so I thought you might not have realised.”

He unbuttoned his shirt at the neck and pulled the collar down to reveal a little line of delicate script at the top of the right side of his chest.

“It’s in her handwriting,” he said quietly. “She used to say it a lot, especially since she used to like to press flowers. I got this done about three months after…” He trailed off, but Sabrina was reading the text written in a slightly messy distracted scrawl with some letters disproportionate to the others.

_Forgiveness is the fragrance flowers give when they are crushed._

Sabrina looked up into his face, and he tucked the script away again. “It helped, a little,” he said gruffly, patting a hand against his chest, over his heart and the tattoo. “Kept her a little closer, and I thought it would help me forgive. I’m still working on that second part, though.”

Sabrina didn’t say anything, just hugging him again. They were prevented from crying again by the ping of the boiled kettle. Pulling away and reaching for the cupboard, Sabrina took out another mug and the hot chocolate powder.

“Don’t forget to be nice to Ambroise,” she called in a shakily teasing voice to her father as she headed back upstairs with her mug of hot chocolate, and heard him reply in affirmation. Settling on her bed, she nursed the mug until it was cool enough to drink. Closing her eyes for a moment, she could almost imagine what it must be like to hear a soft footstep in the hall and hear a gentle voice calling her name, a laugh like a crow’s cackle echoing through the quiet house. Then the voice became an eager little squeal, and the smell of molten chocolate permeated her psyche.

She put the mug down. She’d never know her mother, but she could have Pannu. She just had to spread some more positivity, prove her worth to Ladybug. Then perhaps the growing gape of loss would close. It had to; she couldn’t possibly spend the rest of her life agonising over things she’d had for such a fleeting time, especially if there was one she could work to recover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoop sorry for the long gap, I had writer's block and then a report to write... I'll try to get the next one out a bit faster.


	5. Chapter 5

“-and then that gives you the length of the hypotenuse!” Sabrina finished cheerily.

Chloe squinted at the paper, and back at Sabrina. “Is that all? Huh… maybe I’ve been giving you too much credit for doing my homework. This is easy.”

Sabrina drew a new triangle on her paper, wrote two lengths on it, and slid it across the table. “Here, try it on this. You should be able to get the length of the opposite side from the other two.”

Chloe frowned. “So this one squared… minus this one squared… equals that one squared.” She tapped the calculation into her expensive calculator. “So it’s 8.”

“Yes!” Sabrina smiled. “I think you’ve got it. You should be fine for the geometry test now.”

“Hah!” Chloe sniffed. “Can’t believe that Python guy thought his theorem was anything to be proud of, I could probably come up with a more difficult equation in my sleep.”

“It’s not supposed to be difficult, Chloe, it’s just right,” Sabrina said patiently. “And it’s Pythagoras.”

“Whatever.” Chloe stood up, flipping her book shut and tucking it into her bag. “I have to go, I have to meet up with Ladybug for p-” She stopped. “For pppedicures. I booked us in at the spa and she was all over the idea; she just couldn’t wait to hang out with moi.”

“Aren’t Ladybug’s boots fixed on?” Sabrina questioned, allowing a bit of cynicism into her voice. “And, Chloe, you said you would help me study for chemistry!”

Chloe slid her bag onto her shoulder. “Later, Sabrina, Ladybug’s waiting for me. Can’t keep my best friend waiting!” Then she was marching away.

Sabrina sighed, trying not to let the ‘best friend’ jab get to her too much as she took her chemistry book off the pile. She flipped it open to the right page, and started reading, resting her face on her hand with a disheartened sigh.

“Hello Sabrina,” a small voice said, and a book fell onto the table opposite her, making her jump. She looked up to see Max’s little robot hovering over the table. “Oops,” it said, hovering lower and extending its claw to the book, picking it back up. “I apologise if I startled you.”

“Markov?” Max called, coming around a bookshelf. “Did you find- oh, are you talking to Sabrina?”

“Chloe has left her to study alone,” Markov buzzed. “I was about to offer her my company instead.”

“I see.” Max looked at Sabrina, glancing at the book in front of her. “Chemistry? How are you feeling about the test on Thursday?”

“Not great,” Sabrina grumbled. “I don’t understand all the stuff about isotopes.”

“Well,” Max hesitated. “I… we could help, if you like?” He gave a small snort of amusement. “Kim was supposed to be here, but he decided he’d rather go to the cinema with Ondine.”

“Sorry,” Sabrina said automatically. Max shrugged.

“It’s fine,” he said, then motioned to the book. “So…?”

Sabrina hesitated for a second, then nodded and smiled. “I’d appreciate the help, thanks.”

“My pleasure,” Max and Markov said at the same time, and Sabrina giggled as Max rolled his eyes. Markov came to hover over her shoulder, appearing to scan the pages, and Max sat down across the table.

“So, what are you having trouble with?” Max asked as Markov flew down to try and turn the page; Sabrina eventually turned it for him after watching him struggle with his claw for a few seconds.

“Hmmm…”

Two hours later, Markov was hovering over the table, his little digital eyes narrowed as he posed another question. Sabrina and Max watched in tense silence, each with one hand raised in preparation. The question started deliberately slow, before speeding up at the end. “What… is the most common naturally occurring carbon isotope?”

Sabrina and Max immediately swung their hands down, but Sabrina hit the book pile in the middle of the table just a fraction of a second earlier. “Carbon-12!” she announced, and Markov’s screen lit up green with an affirmative ‘ping’.

“Damn it,” Max cursed, pulling his hand back. “The next one’s mine for sure.”

“Sabrina’s response was 0.157 seconds faster,” Markov ruled. “And there may not be a next one, Friend Max. It is 5pm, and time for us to return home.”

Max checked his watch. “You’re right,” he said grudgingly, and started packing up his books. He looked up at Sabrina. “Would you be open to studying together again, Sabrina? I noticed you have a talent for French History and French Literature, you could help me teach Kim the difference between Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleon the pig.”

Sabrina laughed. “Sure, I’d like that. Thank you for the help, I understand this a lot better now. You too, Markov.”

Markov’s eyes were happy as he waved his claw at her. “Goodbye, Friend Sabrina!”

Max smiled at her as well, turning around and bumping straight into Marinette, who had just walked around a bookcase. “Oh, hello Marinette.”

“Hi!” Marinette greeted. “And it’s nice to see you again, Markov.”

“It is nice to see you too, Friend Marinette. But Max must return home now, or he will miss the evening meal.”

“Oh! I’ll let you go, then,” Marinette smiled. “Here, let me put that book away for you. I’m just here to drop mine off.”

“Thank you, Marinette,” Max said, tucking Markov into his bag and putting on his coat. “Bye Sabrina,” he called back as he left, making Marinette turn her head.

The two girls shared a beat of awkward silence before Sabrina directed her eyes downwards. “Sorry I snapped at you last week,” she muttered. “I was kind of on edge, but I shouldn’t have been so sharp with you.”

Marinette seemed a bit surprised, but then she smiled. “Oh… well, thank you.” She started making her way along the shelf, running her fingers across the spines of the books as she looked for where the book belonged. “You’ve seemed a little down for a couple of weeks now. Is everything ok?”

“I’m fine,” Sabrina said, more quietly this time.

“Is it Nino? I noticed you two haven’t been spending much time together lately.”

“He did something stupid, that’s all,” Sabrina said. “We’ll be back to normal soon.”

“Well, that’s good to hear. He’s been pretty down too. I don’t know what he did, but I’m sure he meant well.”

Sabrina smiled lightly. “Yes, he did.”

Marinette found the right place and slipped the book neatly back onto the shelf. “I’m sure you’ll work things out. He cares about you a lot, you know.”

“I know,” Sabrina agreed, feeling the now familiar comforting warmth she got when she thought about Nino. “I think I’ll give him a call tonight, actually.”

Marinette smiled. “All right, I’ll see you tomorrow, I suppose,” she said, adjusting her little purse.

Sabrina stood up. “Yes, I should be getting home.”

“Bye, Sabrina.”

“Bye.” Feeling a little awkward, Sabrina edged past Marinette and left the library, not noticing Marinette’s concerned and thoughtful eyes on her back as she pushed out of the door, or hearing Marinette’s soft whisper as she looked down at her open purse.

Sabrina called Nino from her room after dinner, and he picked up after the first ring. “Everything OK, Brini?”

“I’m ready to talk,” Sabrina told him. “And forgive you.”

“Great!” Nino made a short whistling noise, pulling air through his teeth. “Only…. Sorry, but I can’t come over tonight. It’s my little brother’s birthday and he’d be upset if I ditched.”

“Oh.” Sabrina tried not to sound too disappointed, she knew how much Nino loved his brother. “No, that’s ok. Wish him happy birthday from me, would you?”

“Will do, Brini. Wayzz says hi. In fact… I could send him over if you want? I’m not allowed to sneak out tonight under pain of death so I don’t need him, and he’ll happily come hang with you if you have some green tea.”

“That would be nice, actually,” Sabrina smiled. “I don’t know if we have green tea, though… is fruit tea ok?”

There was a muttered conversation on the other end of the line, and then Nino came back on the phone. “He says he’ll come over anyway. He’ll be there in like twenty minutes.” His voice was soft. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“We can talk tomorrow,” Sabrina said, a smile tugging her lips and that warm feeling glowing again. “I’ve… missed seeing you.”

Nino was quiet for a second. “Me too,” he murmured. “So… tomorrow, after school?”

“OK.” Sabrina hesitated, feeling butterflies in her stomach for the first time in months. “But, Nino? Do you think we could go somewhere tomorrow night? Not the cinema, or anywhere noisy… somewhere we can talk in private.”

Nino chuckled. “I can take you to the top of the Tower.”

“Ladybug interrupted us there last time,” Sabrina reminded him teasingly. “Just a park or a little café would be fine, Nino.”

An impatient voice called something on Nino’s end. “Sorry, Brini, gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow, OK?”

“Tomorrow,” Sabrina agreed, and Nino disconnected the call. Sabrina glanced at herself in the mirror. She was blushing. Crossly, she tossed her phone on the bed, giggled into a pillow to dispel a few of her stupid nerves, and then went downstairs to establish the tea situation.

Wayzz tapped politely on the window a quarter of an hour later, and then phased through it before she could lift it. He settled beside the mug of blackcurrant tea Sabrina had set out for him, sniffed it appreciatively, then yawned.

“My apologies,” he murmured. “Young Chris woke Master Nino up at 5am this morning, and myself by extension. I may not be particularly good company.”

“Why did Nino send you over here if you’re tired?” Sabrina asked.

“I volunteered.” Wayzz’s eyes strayed to the pile of stuffed animals in the corner. “And your stuffed animals have always looked rather comfortable, Miss Sabrina.”

Sabrina snorted. “I always thought Nino was kidding about your napping habits.”

“If Master thinks I nap a lot, he clearly hasn’t seen much of Plagg,” Wayzz shook his head.

“Who’s Plagg?”

“Chat Noir’s kwami,” Wayzz responded. “He’s definitely the most fond of naps, but many kwami like to sleep regularly, especially when they are on call for transformations almost every day as I am now. Though there are also _some_ kwami who like to be awake almost constantly. Prowwl, the tiger is essentially nocturnal and vigilant through most of the day as well. Orikko, the rooster, always awakens at the crack of dawn. And,” he paused. “Pannu often finds herself too excited to sleep.”

“Can you tell me more about Miraculouses?” Sabrina asked, deliberately not acknowledging the mention of Pannu, though she privately remembered Pannu’s unwillingness to sleep fondly. Maybe it would have become irritating if she’d had Pannu for longer, but Sabrina doubted it.

Wayzz scratched his head. “Not a lot. I can’t tell you anything of the other holders active in Paris now, though I know their identities aside from Hawk Moth and Mayura. And I’m sealed from giving out information about the powers, locations or appearances of other Miraculouses. I can only really talk about the other kwami as personalities.”

“Then do that,” Sabrina encouraged. “Tell me about…. Queen Bee’s kwami.”

“Pollen? Oh, well, I do have a few interesting tales about him, I suppose…”

Two hours later, Wayzz was reclined on a stuffed dolphin. “And then Sass gave Xuppu such a _glare…_ if kwami could die, Xuppu would have keeled over.” He chuckled, but his eyelids were drooping. “Oh… and once, in Greece… Trixx and Pannu played a game of tag. The whole thing caused a paradox, think the humans wrote a story about it.” He yawned again. “I wasn’t there for that, though, so I don’t know which one of them won. Ask Trixx and it was him, ask Pannu and it was her…”

Sabrina, sleepy herself by now, yawned and reached for the lamp. “OK, Wayzz,” she smiled. “Thanks for the stories, they were really fun! But you’re almost keeling over yourself. I'll let you sleep now.”

“G’night, Miss S’brina,” the turtle kwami grunted, nestling himself further into the pile of soft toys. Sabrina smiled again, wishing she could snap a picture to send to Nino, but Wayzz had informed her earlier that kwami weren’t visible on cameras. _Oh well_. She clicked the light off, cuddling up under her own blankets and soon falling asleep; it had been a long day, after all.

When she woke up, Wayzz was still nuzzled into the pile of toys. Sabrina got up and dressed as quietly as possible. She went downstairs to make her lunch and a mug of fruit tea, and as she set it down near him Wayzz peeked his eyes open. There were now only a few minutes before she was due to leave, though, so when he had finished the tea she opened her bag. “Come on,” she said. “It’ll be easier if I just give you back to Nino at college.”

“Thank you, Miss Sabrina.” Wayzz zipped into the bag, seeming pleased to find a few slices of apple there. “There were no attacks last night, I hope?”

“Nothing,” Sabrina said, having checked her phone earlier on. “Everything was quiet.” _Which probably means an attack this morning instead._

“That’s good,” Wayzz hummed, setting himself in the bag and picking up an apple slice as Sabrina closed it, leaving an opening large enough for him to escape through if needed. Then she set off towards the school, ready for a good day. She had drama class again today, which hopefully meant another fun conversation with Dimitri and Lane, and tonight she had a date with Nino. Fingers crossed for no akuma interference, she hurried towards the school.

She was within sight of the school when her phone gave a worrying flurry of pings, and as she hurried towards the steps, the screaming started. Wayzz cautiously peeked out of her bag. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It must be an akuma,” Sabrina said worriedly. “We need to get you back to Nino, quickly! Do you see him anywhere?”

She ran up the stairs after the other students hurrying to take shelter in the school, but stopped at the top to scan the street. Finally, she spotted Nino running towards the school, also looking wildly back and forth.

“Nino!” she called, and his head snapped up in relief. Then he went rigid as something shiny struck him from behind, and he froze in place.

“Nino!” she shouted fearfully, and started back down the steps, before yelping and throwing herself down behind the wall as another sparkling thing flew towards her. Wayzz, calling anxiously, flitted out of her bag and over to Nino, and Sabrina cautiously followed as soon as the cackling akuma had passed over, still flinging shiny things at fleeing civilians.

When she reached Nino, she realised with horror that shimmering silver bubbles were slowly creeping up his limbs, leaving nothing behind, as if he was being slowly scrubbed away like a stain. He smiled ruefully at her as she tentatively reached for his face. “Are you ok?” she asked, before feeling a little stupid for asking.

“I’m fine.” Nino met her gaze, then looked to Wayzz. “Heh. Tell LB and Chat why Carapace won’t be showing up to this battle, will you?” There was a small clatter as his Miraculous bracelet fell to the ground, Nino’s wrist vanishing beneath it. Nino chuckled. “Oh, and look after that for me.”

“Master Nino,” Wayzz said slowly. “She could… do more than just look after it, you know.”

Nino’s amber eyes grew serious. “Are you sure, little dude? LB might not like it.”

“Miss Sabrina is not brilliantly suited to the Turtle,” Wayzz said thoughtfully. “But I feel my powers may be be beneficial in this battle to deflect projectiles, and Miss Sabrina does have some experience with wielding a Miraculous. I would be happy allowing her to assume temporary use of my power, should you agree of course.”

Nino looked to Sabrina, the bubbles creeping to his waist and shoulders at this point. “What do you say, Brini? No pressure or anything, but maybe the others would appreciate you stepping in to help.”

Sabrina crouched down to pick up the bracelet. The power thrumming through it felt less comfortable than the Dog Miraculous had, but it was still an intriguing feeling. How could she say no? Nino was literally disappearing in front of her; if the akuma won, he might be gone forever. And if she did a good job, maybe Ladybug might be convinced to reconsider her for a permanent team member. Even if not, another chance to be a hero, to feel that freedom again…”

“I’ll do it,” Sabrina said. She looked fiercely at Wayzz, slipping the bracelet onto her wrist. “I’d better get to somewhere less visible, though.” She looked back at Nino, who was basically a floating head now. Leaning forward to kiss his cheek, she met his gaze firmly. “I won’t let you down, Nino. I’ll see you again soon.”

Nino smiled crookedly. “See ya, Brini. Have fun!”

Unwilling to watch him vanish entirely, Sabrina sprinted away from the school and ducked into an alleyway, checking carefully around her before looking at Wayzz again, who was hovering in front of her. “OK, I think I remember, but just remind me what I need to say?”

“Shell on to transform, Guardian for your power, shell off to detransform,” Wayzz recited. “Come on, the other heroes will probably have arrived already.”

“OK.” Sabrina drew a deep breath. “Wayzz, shell on.”

It felt different, but similar to transforming into Cavalier, and when the green sparkles had faded Sabrina took barely a glance down at her pale green, dark-dappled suit before pulling the patterned shield from her back and haring off in the direction she’d last seen the akuma heading. She could feel that her hair was pulled back by something, so that it was out of her peripheral vision, but didn't take the time to figure out what, flinging herself towards the distant battling figures.

She’d barely arrived at the site where the other heroes were already engaged with the akuma when Rena Rouge caught sight of her and came springing over, slowing at the sight of the bracelet on her wrist. “Who are you?” the fox heroine said suspiciously. “Where’s Carapace?”

“He got hit before he could transform,” Sabrina told her. “He told me to take the bracelet and come to help. It’s OK, you can trust me. I’ve done this before.”

Rena looked her up and down briefly, and then brightened. “Oh, are you the girl he had with him a couple of weeks ago? Cavalier?”

Sabrina felt a little twinge in her gut at the name. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Awesome,” Rena beamed. “This costume doesn’t suit you quite as well, though; shame you couldn’t keep the other one.” Her eyes were sympathetic. “Don’t worry, I’ll let the others know you’re cool.” She raised her flute to tap on the screen, and that was when the akuma spotted them and decided to unleash a flurry of bubbles their way.

“Hey, watch out!” Sabrina yelped, jumping in the way with her shield raised. The impacts were a lot heavier than she expected from bubbles, but she found her arm held steady, blocking both herself and Rena from being struck.

“Thanks!” Rena chirped, finishing up on her flute. “Now let’s finish this up, guys!” she called loudly. “Got places to be, you know?”

“We all do, you aren’t special, fox-face!” Queen Bee called, rolling out of the way of some flung bubbles.

Sabrina threw herself eagerly into the fray this time, more confident in her more robust form, though she wasn’t quite so quick or agile this time. Blocking bubble after bubble, she glowed under the thanks of the other heroes, and the excited and confused calls from the street below; this time, she had been seen. But still… there was the underlying feeling that this wasn’t right.

She knew she wasn’t as skilful as Nino at using the shield offensively. None of the others commented, but she had seen the team working together and she just didn’t quite fit in this way. She wasn’t strong enough for the powerful shield throws he used to attack, or for launching her teammates into the air the way she’d seen him do; Rena tried that technique, and Sabrina was bowled over instead, apologising profusely as Queen Bee snorted and Rena shrugged. Ladybug, ever adaptable, didn’t seem fazed by the less proficient turtle holder, and finally, to Sabrina’s relief, the akuma was sprawled on a roof and a black butterfly was briefly fluttering free before being swept up and purified.

Sabrina lingered back from the fistbump. Chat and Rena gave her encouraging glances, but she still hung back, so they just smiled sympathetically at her instead. Then Chat Noir took the victim down from the roof, Rena and Queen Bee ran away, and Ladybug waited for Sabrina to approach.

“Well done, Sabrina,” Ladybug said quietly. “Thank you for stepping in. I know you weren’t very sure in this transformation, but you still tried hard. If Nino is ever unable to transform again, you are welcome to take his place.” She hesitated. “I apologise for trusting him to take the Dog Miraculous back from you. If I had known he would be so irresponsible, I would have retrieved it from you that night. I think that would have been kinder on both you and Pannu.”

Sabrina looked down at her feet. “How is she?” she asked tentatively.

Ladybug’s face twisted with regret. “I haven’t spoken with her personally, but Tikki tells me that she misses you.”

It was like a stab in the gut, and Sabrina didn’t say anything.

“It’s my responsibility to safeguard the Miraculouses,” Ladybug said softly. “And believe me, were it not for Hawk Moth and Mayura I would have no problem letting you keep Pannu. But you remember Hero’s Day, I’m sure. A boost to their powers could be disastrous. Nino chose the right Miraculous for you, but the only one I simply cannot allow out of my keeping.”

“Can’t I even see her?” Sabrina asked desperately. “Nino sent Wayzz to stay with me yesterday, couldn’t you…”

Ladybug was shaking her head. “It would be cruel to both of you to pull her away every time. And kwami flying unattended around the city is dangerous. Nino shouldn’t have been sending Wayzz out either.”

Sabrina lowered her head. “I… I understand, Ladybug. I should be getting back to Nino now.”

Ladybug smiled sadly. “Bye, Sabrina.”

Sabrina turned away, starting to head back towards the school. The thrill of racing over the rooftops just wasn’t there. It was clear to her now, from the battle and the sensation of being transformed, that this wasn’t what she’d been missing. She’d been missing the Dog Miraculous specifically, and Pannu in particular.

When she got back to the school, Nino was waiting, waving from the corner of the building. She landed next to him, hurried out of sight behind him, and dropped the transformation, sliding the bracelet off and passing it back to him.

“You won, then?” Nino teased, but she just shrugged. Tucking Wayzz back under his cap, Nino frowned. “Are you OK?”

“We can talk about it later,” Sabrina mumbled. “We’re going to be late for class.”

“Oh- right.” Nino scooped up his bag. “History with Mendeleiev first, right?”

“Unfortunately.”

“For this group project,” Ms. Mendeleiev said, narrowing her eyes and glaring around the class, “I’ll be assigning groups based on alphabetical order, to ensure there’s no messing around.” She glanced first at Kim, then Nino, who both looked away nonchalantly.

Chloe’s hand shot up, and Ms. Mendeleiev waved her hand down impatiently. “No, Miss Bourgeois, you and Miss Raincomprix may _not_ be exempted from that rule. Now as I read out your groups I expect you to reallocate your seats to suit your assigned groups. Chloe, you’ll be working with Adrien and Ivan.”

Chloe perked up, while Adrien and Ivan grimaced. Alya, Juleka and Marinette became a group, seeming a lot happier with their lot, and Sabrina began going over surnames to figure out who she was going to be teamed up with. Max, Mylene and Alix were grouped together, as were Nino, Rose and Nathanael; Sabrina had already figured out by the time Ms. Mendeleiev read out her name that she would be working with Kim and Lila.

Kim shrugged at her when she looked up at him, while Lila shot her a glance as the class began to stand and change seats. Sabrina and Kim moved to the back to join Lila when Nathan evacuated his seat and Lila showed no sign of moving.

“Choose one of these topics to research before you leave today and write it on the board next to your group’s names,” Ms. Mendeleiev told them, handing out a sheet to each group. “You have a week to research your topic, including the rest of the lesson time today. I expect a seven-minute presentation from each group on their chosen topic during this lesson slot next week.”

Muttering and groaning started up, but she shushed them crossly. “And I expect every group member to be involved in the talk!” she told them. “Anyone who doesn’t turn up to present will get an automatic zero for this assignment.”

Kim thumped his head onto the table, and Lila rolled her eyes. Sabrina slid the sheet over, and started scanning the list. A lot of the topics were just names of important battles in French history, as well as a few more general topics of weaponry, use of cavalry, and the politics behind the conflicts.

“So, do either of you have a preference?” she asked after the other two had also read the list and nobody was speaking up.

“I’m a brilliant researcher and presenter, so it doesn’t matter to me,” Lila huffed.

“Can we do one about a war?” Kim asked.

“Kim, this is a military history assignment,” Sabrina said lightly. “All of these are about one war or another.”

“Are any of them ones where France absolutely battered the other side?”

Lila looked scornful, but Sabrina scanned the list again. “There’s the Siege of Orleans. That could be interesting.”

“Joan of Arc, sign me up!” Alya exclaimed from the front of the class, hurrying to the board and scrawling ‘Siege of Orleans’ next to her group names on the board before leading Marinette and Juleka out of the classroom.

“Well, I guess that one’s out,” Sabrina shrugged. “How about the Battle of Valmy, then, from the Revolutionary Wars?”

“Are they the ones with…” Kim made vague hand gestures, “the cake lady?”

“Marie Antoinette? Yes.”

“Cool, guillotines! Can we do that one?”

“That’s the best one to do if you want to talk about Marie Antoinette, yes, since the declaration of the French Republic happened in the aftermath of the Battle of Valmy.”

“Sweet!” Kim stood up, took the paper, and went to the front of class, scribbling ‘Battle of Valmy’ on the board next to their names. “Come on!” he said impatiently, hurrying back up the steps to grab his bag. “Let’s go!”

Sabrina slipped her bag onto her shoulder, and Lila followed her down to the front of the class; the two of them walked to the library as Kim rushed ahead, whistling cheerily. Sabrina was grateful that he was enthusiastic, at least. She glanced at Lila. The Italian girl looked straight ahead, until they reached the library, at which point she took out her phone, stared at it for a moment, then put on a frown. “Oh no, guys, I gotta go! My uncle’s just been taken into hospital for his heart. Mum’s already on her way to pick me up. Will you be ok to research without me just for today? I promise I’ll join you tomorrow, as long as… as long as he pulls through.” She gave them a wide-eyed look, her eyes shiny and lip trembling.

“Sure! And I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Kim said, patting Lila’s shoulder.

Sabrina looked at Lila carefully. She knew Chloe didn’t believe a word that ever came out of this girl’s mouth, and this excuse seemed a little too sudden for her liking. Still, she could give her the benefit of the doubt. Once. “I’m so sorry to hear that!” she said sympathetically. “We’ll be fine without you today. We’ll see you tomorrow, OK? I’ll set up a group chat so we’re all up to speed on how the project is going.”

“That would be great, thanks,” Lila simpered. “Bye, then!” She trotted away, and Kim pressed on into the library, leading the way into the history section then stopping at the chronological organisation. Smiling wryly, Sabrina pointed him to the late 1700s and stepped over to the shelves herself, quickly selecting a couple of books. It had been a while since she’d had some good research to sink her teeth into, and in fact she found it hard to dwell on Pannu while she was so focused on reading about the Battle of Valmy. Kim poked her occasionally to point out something he thought was interesting or to ask a question, but all in all Sabrina was able to lose herself in the reading, hardly even remembering that less than an hour before she had been in a battle herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't go into much detail on Sabrina's Turtle costume, but imagined her look would be based on a diamondback terrapin.
> 
> P.S I'm keeping some canon kwami names but changing others (Prowwl is the tiger now because Roarr can bite me) and in this version of canon Pollen is male and extremely sassy, because I'm not on board with doormat canon Pollen. Not that any of this is very important to the story, but just thought I'd mention it.


	6. Chapter 6

“Sabrina!” Dimitri greeted her in a friendly tone as she stepped into the drama classroom. Sabrina glanced across to the teacher, nervous that she was a little late; Kim had pulled out far more books than she had thought and it had taken a while to put them away. The teacher just waved her over to her seat, eyes on her computer screen.

“We’ve got a new script,” Lane told her as she sat down. “Groups of five.” He gestured to the pair of girls sitting with them. Sabrina dimly recognised them as well, particularly the taller one whom she had often seen making her way around the corridors with her white cane. She really hadn’t bothered to get to know her drama class, aside from Lane. Rose was in the class too, but it wasn’t like she really knew Rose. She and Lane had been the two hanging back when told to pair up, so inevitably they’d ended up keeping to themselves.

As she took her notebook and pen out of her bag, the shorter girl with bobbed auburn hair and glasses gave her a suspicious look. “You’re _Chloe’s friend_ ,” she said, in a tone which made Sabrina pause.

“I prefer Sabrina.” Sabrina almost bit her tongue, but made herself meet the other girl’s eyes, a little unnerved by the veiled hostility there. “And yes, I know her, what about it?”

“I don’t think much of your choice of friends, that’s all,” the girl responded, still not looking away. Dimitri and Lane exchanged worried glances.

“Should we ask for a different group?” Dimitri asked tentatively.

There was a tense silence for a moment, the other girl narrowing her grey eyes before finally breaking eye contact with Sabrina to give Dimitri a forced smile. “No. Whatever. As long as she doesn’t expect me to start spilling my secrets so she can go scurrying back to Chloe.”

“Of course not.” Sabrina couldn’t help feeling a little mortified. Was this how the other students saw her? Chloe’s little pet?

 _I mean, weren’t you?_ She shoved the thought away, replacing it by trying for a friendly smile. “You don’t need to worry about that, I promise.” It came out sincere enough that the other girl relaxed a little.

“Persephone,” the girl said eventually, slouching back in her chair. “But I prefer Perry. My parents are morons.”

Lane swept his long dirty-blonde hair out of his face. “I mean, same. Like, hello, I’m Avenue.” He snorted. The tension relaxed a bit more, and the taller girl who hadn’t yet spoken cracked a small smile. Encouraged, with one eye on her, Lane went on, “Yeah, hi, my name’s Street, what’s your name?” Still smiling indulgently, the girl didn’t respond until Perry rolled her eyes and elbowed her in the side.

“Oh! Uh, I’m, I’m Eira,” she stammered, with a moderate Welsh accent. Sabrina glanced at her; her hair was such pale blonde it looked almost white, and for the first time she noticed that the girl had a cast on one foot, a crutch resting against the back of her chair next to the white cane. She’d just opened her mouth to politely inquire when Dimitri beat her to the punch.

“What did you do to your foot?”

Eira stiffened, and Perry glared at Dimitri. “I fractured my ankle,” Eira said shortly.

Lane winced in empathy. “Eeesh. I fractured my wrist a few years back, wasn’t fun. That sucks.”

“It does,” Eira agreed eagerly, appearing to brighten a little at his commiserations. “I’ve been training for months for this speed skating event, right? And then the week before-” She mimed a collision, and then something snapping, complete with sound effects. “I’m off the ice for at least 3 months.” She slumped back in her chair, her face twisted into a frown. Perry gave her a soft nudge.

“There’ll be other competitions though,” Perry reminded her. “It isn’t the end of the world.”

Eira shrugged. “This was the big one, though. There won’t be another one like it for a year.”

“Still, that means you’ll have time to get even better by then, right?” Sabrina suggested, sneaking a cheery inflection into her tone.

Eira scoffed. “Sure. Improve enough not to almost dislocate my foot again, you mean?”

“That isn’t what I meant,” Sabrina tried to amend, but Eira had turned her head downward impatiently, tapping her fingernails on the table. Lane leaned across the table and whispered something before briefly patting the back of her hand; Eira nodded minutely but didn’t change her expression, aside from gaining a little bit of colour in her cheeks.

“Shall we get on with this, then?” Dimitri said after a brief pause, picking up the script.

Perry stuck her hand out. “Give it.” She read the assignment and script outline out loud, and they all leaned in to discuss assigning roles. Sabrina kept an eye on Eira; though Perry soon meshed into the group dynamic, her friend said little, running her fingers over her own script and quietly agreeing with most of what the others said. When the class was over Perry helped Eira to her feet, Eira took up her cane and crutch and she made her way over to the door. Sabrina watched her leave. Privately, she wondered if maybe she had found her next target for her little positivity-spreading mission.

By lunch she was so dead set on that thought that she was standing in the cafeteria queue with her eyes peeled for pale blonde hair. Eventually, she spotted her target; Eira was sitting at a table with Perry, picking at her cafeteria food while Perry seemed to be chattering a mile a minute. Sabrina tapped her foot in frustration. Her unspoken conflict with Perry that morning meant she wasn’t sure she’d be welcomed at the table.

Instead, she collected her tray and went to sit with Nino, who was sitting with Rose and Nathanael, his history study group. Rose greeted her enthusiastically, Nathanael grunted at her, but Nino said nothing, glancing sideways at her.

“How was Chris’ birthday?” Sabrina asked. It wasn’t like she could speak her mind in front of Rose and Nathan, after all. Nino brightened.

“Was fun,” he grinned. “Little git smashed my face into the cake. After Mum had cut him a big piece out of it, obviously. Then we played his new video games all evening. He wouldn’t let me leave until he was starting to fall asleep with the controller in his hands. Did you have a good evening?”

“I heard a lot of interesting stories,” Sabrina smiled back mischievously, and Nino raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, really?”

“Don’t worry, nothing embarrassing,” Sabrina teased. “Thanks for- uh- recommending that podcast. I’ll have to listen again sometime.”

“Sure,” Nino said. Rose and Nathan were looking a little confused, so he changed the subject. “Anyway. We’ve got a bone to pick with you. You sniped our topic this morning.”

“Yeah, well, Alya sniped ours,” Sabrina shrugged. “Kim picked it, anyway. He wanted a decisive French victory. And guillotines. And ‘cake lady’.”

Nathanael and Nino snorted. Sabrina huffed in amusement. “I’m letting him research the aftermath of the battle and the political history around it. He was so disappointed that the original quote was about brioche, not cake, and that there isn’t actually any evidence Marie Antoinette ever said it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he brings a cake in for the presentation though.”

“That would be nice,” Rose smiled.

“Mendeleiev would probably confiscate it,” Nino pointed out drily. He slid his glasses halfway down his nose and dabbed a spot of barbeque sauce above his lip before putting his hands on his hips and imitating the teacher’s stern tone. “ _There will be no enjoyment in my classroom. Stop being happy and spreading sugary goodness right this second, this is a place of learning and endless misery.”_ Rose and Sabrina giggled, and Nathanael cracked a smile as Nino wiped his face, grinning. “Nah, it’s no problem, Brini,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “First come, first served. Couldn’t expect to beat Kim to a topic he wanted to do.”

Sabrina automatically rested her head on his shoulder, settling herself comfortably against his side. “Good. Wouldn’t want you to be angry with me for our date later.”

“Oh yeah, where do you want to go?” Nino asked. “I was thinking we could go for a walk in the park and then grab a drink in Marinette’s parents’ bakery.”

“That sounds nice,” Sabrina smiled.

“Pick you up from your house at 4.30?”

“Sure.”

Nino kissed her forehead and Sabrina smiled, closing her eyes. Then- “You two are so cute!” Rose squealed, making Sabrina remember where she was, and she snapped her head up. Rose was still beaming.

“Thanks?” Sabrina said uncertainly.

“I’m glad you aren’t fighting any more,” Rose enthused. “You’ve both seemed so sad recently, Juleka and I thought you might have broken up.”

“We just had a… misunderstanding?” Nino said hastily. “We’re fine.”

 _First Marinette, now Juleka and Rose? People are too vigilant in this school._ Sabrina nodded in agreement with what Nino was saying, fiddling with her bag. “Yeah, just a little rough patch.” All of a sudden, across the lunch hall, she spotted Perry standing up and saying something to Eira, who acknowledged her before Perry left the hall. Perry’s bag was still there, so she would clearly be back- this might be her only chance to speak to Eira in privacy.

“I’ll be right back,” she told Nino and the others, leaving her bag behind and hurrying across the hall. Cautiously, she approached the table, where Eira had finished pushing her food around her plate and was now fiddling with the lid on her smoothie bottle.

“Hi,” Sabrina said, uncertainly, then in a more friendly tone. “It’s Sabrina, you know, from drama class?”

“Hello,” Eira said, disinterestedly.

“Listen, I- I wanted to apologise for what I said earlier? I think you might have taken it out of context, I wasn’t- saying you were a bad skater or-”

“What’s your point?” Eira demanded. “Have you really just come over here to spit some half-built apologies? I really don’t care, either way.”

“I don’t-” Sabrina felt a little taken aback. “No, you just seemed upset, I wanted to see if you were OK.”

“No, I’m not. Thanks for your concern. Go away.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not to you. I don’t need you reporting back to Chloe and I certainly don’t need your pity, if that’s what this is. My ankle’s fractured, I can’t skate in the competition and there’s nothing anyone can do about that.” Eira turned her head sharply away.

“I mean-” Sabrina struggled; how had this conversation gone so far south already? “Maybe you should look on the bright side, like I was s-saying-”

Eira snapped her head back around and her clouded eyes glared over the top of her sunglasses. Suddenly Sabrina regretted her choice of words. “Really,” Eira said coldly. “Well, Little Miss Positivity, I’ll bear that in mind for the future. Now leave. Me. Alone.”

“What’s going on?” Perry asked, arriving suddenly back at the table. Noticing Eira’s furrowed brow, she glared at Sabrina.

“Sabrina was just leaving,” Eira said pointedly. “You didn’t tell me she was such an insufferable little ray of sunshine, Seph.”

Perry looked confused then, and to Sabrina’s surprise, she jerked her head to beckon Sabrina away from the table. “I’ll talk to her, ok, Ra?”

Eira nodded shortly.

“Bye, then,” Sabrina said lamely, and walked after Perry. Perry waited for her, her eyes narrowed.

Her tone was slightly accusatory as she met Sabrina’s eyes. “What did you say to her?”

“I was just trying to apologise for this morning!” Sabrina said defensively. “I thought she’d misinterpreted what I said… and she doesn’t seem very happy, I was hoping I could cheer her up a little.”

Perry was shaking her head. “You wouldn’t be happy either if you were in her place,” she pointed out. She gave Sabrina a guarded look. “I get the feeling you were actually just trying to be nice, though. Although if I tell you what I think is up with her, I don’t want to hear it from Chloe tomorrow, got it? I will personally rip out every hair on your head if I hear a word of this from that blonde’s poison tongue.”

“Absolutely,” Sabrina agreed hastily, shrinking back a little at the threat. “I just want to help. I won’t tell a soul.”

“All right.” Perry glanced back at Eira, who was moodily fiddling with her cane. “Well, Eira doesn’t like to be ‘cheered up’. I’ve known her since we were 8, and she’s stubborn as a mule with her bad moods. Hell, half the time she won’t even tell me what she’s upset about. It just eventually blows over. This one’s taking a lot longer than usual, though.”

“Are you saying she _wants_ to be miserable?” Sabrina asked.

“Haven’t you ever been in a mood where the more people try to be positive about whatever’s going on, you just get more annoyed?”

“I… I guess.” Sabrina hesitated. “I don’t know, I probably shouldn’t have interfered… it’s just that I really don’t like seeing people unhappy.”

Perry raised her eyebrow sceptically, but shrugged. “That’s not her problem.”

“I know,” Sabrina said. “That came out wrong.”

“You’ve been doing that a lot today, huh?” Perry eyed her. “Look, just let Ra work her own way out of her bad mood. She’ll probably apologise when she’s feeling better.”

“Would you tell her I’m sorry for upsetting her?”

“No, she won’t like that. She’s not accepting sympathy at the moment, unless it’s from nice boys, I guess.” Perry snorted. “Personally, I think she’s just worried about her ankle not mending properly or something. The speed-skating is everything to her, and she’s _really_ good at it.”

“Thanks, Seph.” Eira said loudly behind them, leaning on her crutch, and Sabrina saw Perry’s face go pale. “When you’re finished speculating about me,” the blonde girl said airily, “I thought we were going to the library to study for Geography.”

“Let me just grab my bag,” Perry said quickly, and hurried back to the table. Sabrina stood there awkwardly, and Eira turned her head towards her.

“Have fun in your happy little world, I guess,” Eira told her. She smiled, but it was an empty gesture. “Maybe learn when to leave other people out of it, though.”

Perry arrived back, and she shot Sabrina one last cryptic glance as she and Eira walked away. Sabrina suddenly felt uneasy. She’d thought, up until now, that being upbeat could never be a bad thing. She’d embraced that little happy voice inside. Had she been wrong, and only made things worse this time?

She shuffled back to Nino’s table, crestfallen. When he asked what was wrong, she shrugged, and he didn’t push her, instead just slipping an arm around her as he continued to chat with Rose and Nathanael.

The afternoon lessons passed in a daze. Sabrina spent the whole time just wondering what she had done wrong, and what she should have said instead. Eira was still on her mind as she was closing Chloe’s limousine door, when Nino tapped her on the shoulder.

“See you in an hour?” he asked. “Are you still up for that date?”

“Oh, yes, of course!” Sabrina shook the thoughts of Eira from her mind, and smiled. “We have a lot of things to talk about.”

“We do?”

“We do.” Sabrina leaned up to kiss his cheek. “My dad will be home, though, so be prepared if he answers the door.”

“Hey, me and your dad are cool. He likes ginger hot chocolate too.”

“Whatever, Nino.” Sabrina rolled her eyes, turning to head home. “See you soon.”

“Bye, Rainie.”

At home, Sabrina changed into a pretty shirt she’d picked up on a shopping trip with her father and some nice jeans. It was raining on and off, the sky grey, so she tucked an umbrella into her bag. Then she started to glance over the Ladyblog. As she’d suspected, there was a lot of questioning about ‘the new Carapace’, but Alya had apparently glossed over it in her summary, something she was quite grateful for considering the poor job she felt she’d done. A few people were speculating the truth- that someone had just taken his place because he’d been busy or hit. There was probably much more, but at that point the doorbell rang and she heard her father shuffling to the door.

She hurried down the stairs and around the corner to see Nino walking in, looking just a little nervous at Roger’s scrutiny. He was also wearing jeans, with a button-up shirt and coat. His cap was still firmly wedged on his head, though.

“We’re just going for a walk in the park and then to the patisserie after,” Sabrina told her father. “I’ll be back by seven.”

Roger sighed, but nodded. “OK. Let me know if you get held up, though.” He glanced at Nino, then smiled. “And don’t lose track of Nino this time,” he teased.

“Will do, Dad.” Sabrina gave him a hug and then pulled Nino out of the door, rolling her eyes at him. “You couldn’t go without the cap, just this once?”

“Hey, Wayzz likes it,” Nino defended.

“Wayzz also likes sleeping on my stuffed toys,” Sabrina said slyly. “And spilling the gossip about the other kwami.”

“You asked!” Wayzz’s voice said, muffled by the cap.

“Oh? I’ll have to get the little dude to spill the beans some time,” Nino smirked. “Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

“Let’s get to the park first, OK?” Sabrina slipped her hand into his. “I told you, I’d feel better if we were somewhere quiet.”

Half an hour later, sitting on a bench under a cherry tree, Sabrina rested her head on Nino’s shoulder once more. They stayed in comfortable silence for almost ten minutes, before Nino nudged her gently. “So?”

Sabrina thought for a little while before answering. “I still miss Pannu.”

Nino sighed, but before he could start apologising Sabrina cut him off. “But I shouldn’t have got so upset with you about it. You hoped, I hoped, we were wrong.” She pushed a bit of hair out of her face. “So I forgive you. Like I said, I really missed talking to you. And your evening visits.”

“Does that mean I can start coming over for hot chocolate again?”

Sabrina smiled. “Sure.”

There was another comfortable silence. “I missed you too, Brini,” Nino said quietly. “It didn’t feel right, not talking to you every day. I was worried that…” He put his arm around her again. “Adrien and Marinette thought we had broken up.”

“We didn’t,” Sabrina asserted. “Like I said earlier, just a rough patch.” Feeling that familiar warmth all over again, she nuzzled closer to him. “It’d take more than a little tiff to make me break up with you. I like you too much for that.”

That word wasn’t right. This was more than that, now. Sabrina glanced up at him, moving her head so she could meet his eyes. “I _love_ you too much for that.”

Nino stared at her, and then his eyes started going shiny. “Oh God,” Sabrina said, sitting up. “Nino, don’t cry.”

“I’m not,” he sniffled. “But I love you too.”

It hit her like a punch in the gut, and Sabrina blinked at him. “Stop it, you’re making me want to cry!” she scolded, burying her face against his chest in a hug.

Nino started laughing. “Ahh, Brini, we’re a mess, huh?”

“It’s nice, though.”

“It is.” Nino huffed as she moved to lean on his shoulder again. “You surprised me, I’ve been trying to work out how to tell you that for a weeks. I had a backing song picked out and everything.”

Sabrina pulled a face. “You’re such a sap.”

“But you love me.”

“I do.” Sabrina leaned up for a brief kiss. “Want to just sit here for a while?”

“Sure.” Nino waited until she closed her eyes, then sneaked out his phone, tapping out a quick message. Sabrina felt her phone buzz, and took it out to see that Nino had sent her a link to a song.

Nino grinned at her and she rolled her eyes, but started to play it from her phone, so that the gentle melody surrounded them. In close embrace, they sat there until the song had looped multiple times, content in each other’s quiet company.

What seemed like hours later but was only around 20 minutes, Nino looked at his watch. “It’s six. We’d better get to the patisserie if you want to get home by seven.”

Sabrina stretched, getting to her feet, and they walked hand in hand to the patisserie, settling themselves into a little booth. Sabine smiled at them from behind the counter, greeting Nino by name. “Hello, Nino.”

“Hi, Mrs. Cheng,” Nino replied, getting up after shrugging off his coat. He ambled over to the counter, squinting at the display. “I think we’ll take two ginger hot chocolates. That all right, Brini?”

“Great,” Sabrina answered. She studied the rose in the centre of the table; there was no mantis on it this time, thankfully. Nino came back with the drinks, and began playing with his little gingerbread man. Sabrina eventually snatched it and bit off its legs, grinning at him.

“Noooooo!” Nino wailed. “How could you do this?”

“You can have mine,” Sabrina said, rolling her eyes and taking another bite of the gingerbread.

“You killed him, Sabrina.”

“How can I ever live with myself.”

Nino laughed at the deadpan, before something outside caught Sabrina’s eye. Her heart sank. A dense blanket of silver mist was spreading along the street towards them in a wave; as she watched, it collided with the building and began to coat the ground outside.

“That doesn’t look normal,” Sabrina said immediately, standing up and watching the pale mist roll across the ground outside. It was staying around waist height, but was so dense and silver that it completely concealed the cobbles. Mr. Dupain obviously agreed, as he quickly crossed to the door and pulled it closed.

“You all are welcome to sit tight in here until this is cleared up,” he told them with false cheeriness. Nino looked at Sabrina uncertainly, before suddenly someone came racing up to the shop from outside, starting to hammer on the door.

“Let me in!” he shrieked. “There’s something in the mist! Something in the-”

A blurred spiky shape sprung out of the mist and latched onto his back, and he shrieked as he was pulled over backwards, disappearing into the mist. When he struggled back to his feet, his eyes were clouded silver and he shambled off along the road, head down, apparently no longer interested in escaping.

Nino glanced at Sabrina. “I have to transform,” he murmured. “That thing looked like Mayura’s work; the others are going to need my help.”

“Marinette’s room has a balcony,” Sabrina whispered, trying to recall the layout of the house from that one ‘ _reconnaissance mission’_ she’d been on. “You’d have to sneak up there, though. And what if she’s here?”

“She isn’t, she and Alya were going window-shopping after college,” Nino muttered. “How am I supposed to sneak past Sabine, though?”

“I don’t know, but you need to hurry.” The mist was starting to slowly creep in under the door; they retreated with the other customers as it thickened and spread across the store. They heard something start scratching at the glass, and Sabine came out from behind the counter.

“Quickly, everyone upstairs,” she told them, ushering people past the counter as the door started to crack. Sabrina dragged Nino by the wrist to the front of the group, and when they got upstairs he scrambled quickly up to Marinette’s room and she followed, closing the hatch behind them.

“Go!” she urged. Wayzz was already hovering, ready, and Nino accordingly transformed, hopping out onto the balcony and looking down over the street. Sabrina glanced quickly around the room. Everything was the same as she had remembered from last time she had snuck into the room, aside from a gramophone she was pretty sure was new. It didn’t really seem like something Marinette would have picked out, and she frowned at it.

“Brini?” Carapace called uncertainly. “Come on, I want to get you out of here.”

“I think I’ll be OK here,” Sabrina told him. She crossed the room, feeling a strange pull, almost, from the gramophone.

“Maybe you would, Brini, but… I don’t think Marinette would want you left alone in her room.” Carapace sounded apologetic as he peered back in through the skylight. “Come on, I’ll put you somewhere safe where you can still see the fighting.”

Sabrina sighed, breaking her stare with the gramophone. “All right,” she mumbled, slipping out onto the balcony and letting him pick her up. As he carried her across the city, she gazed down into the streets. People shuffled around in the blanketing mist like zombies; occasionally she saw people fleeing, or sinister shapes moving below the rolling fog, but there was no sign of an akuma yet.

Carapace’s communicator started beeping and he paused, putting her down to answer it. “Yellow?”

“The akuma is near the cathedral,” Ladybug’s voice came through. “Nobody’s reported it in because the mist seems to incapacitate them in some way. And I think we have a Mayura creature as well, something is dragging people down into the mist. Stay off the ground and out of the mist, whatever you do.”

“Got it, the floor is lava,” Carapace said casually.

Ladybug seemed far less jovial. “Just get here, Carapace. This is a serious one. Chat and Bee aren’t picking up, I’m starting to think they might not have had chance to transform.”

“Then maybe we need some extra help?” Carapace said hopefully. He turned the shield around and Sabrina blinked at him, then waved nervously to the tiny Ladybug on the screen.

“If we do, I’ll bear her in mind,” Ladybug said sternly. “But hopefully you, Rena and I will be able to handle it. The akuma hasn’t even seen us yet.”

“Can I bring Sabrina anyway? Just in case?”

“OK,” Ladybug said after a pause. Then she hung up.

“Nino,” Sabrina said quietly. “You need to stop pushing for Ladybug to give me the Dog Miraculous again. I don’t want it if it’s just going to upset Pannu all over again.”

“I know,” Carapace answered. “Was kinda hoping she’d get you a different one, actually. Just so she can see how well you do in the team, that kind of thing.”

“But she saw that this morning, and I wasn’t even good at it,” Sabrina protested.

“I saw some of the vids, and that was mostly on Rena and the others for expecting you to use the turtle the same way I do. I think you did a good job.”

“There are videos?”

Carapace scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “A few, yeah. People were a bit critical of you, not gonna lie. Maybe don’t look at too many comments.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, come on, LB’s waiting.” Carapace picked her up again, and began making for the cathedral. Below, Sabrina noticed that the mist was inching higher and higher as they got closer to the apparent source, until it was brushing the gutters of the buildings Carapace ran across.

Rena and Ladybug were standing on the top of the cathedral belltower, looking down into the adjacent street. The mist down there was churning and billowing outward, and every so often a ridged silver creature would pierce the surface like a shark’s fin before dipping back under.

“Still nothing from Chat or Bee,” Ladybug told them as they arrived. Rena turned around to look at them.

“Why’d you bring Sabrina?” she asked Carapace.

“Ladybug said we might need her help,” Carapace said, and Ladybug didn’t dispute him.

“So, I assume that was you wearing the turtle this morning?” Rena asked Sabrina, who hesitated. “Don’t worry, I had an inkling. And I won’t tell anyone.” She glanced up at Carapace thoughtfully.

“Thanks?” Sabrina said. Ladybug was still looking down into the mist.

“We still don’t know exactly how this mist works,” she fretted. “And we can’t even _see_ her any more.”

“What are we dealing with?” Carapace asked.

“Looked like a girl about our age,” Rena filled him in. “White hair, weird cloudy eyes… she had a weird walking stick thing that was spewing out all the mist.”

Sabrina’s breath caught. “Did she have something on her left leg?”

“Now you mention it, there was a weird shackle or something on one of her legs. Not sure which one.” Rena tipped her head, her eyes narrowing. “Somebody you know?”

“I guess you could say that,” Sabrina said shakily. _How can I admit that this might be my fault?_

“If you know anything about this akuma victim, you need to tell us,” Ladybug said immediately.

“I- I don’t know for sure, but it might be Eira Morgan,” Sabrina said uncomfortably. “She was definitely upset when I spoke to her earlier.”

To her relief, Ladybug didn’t push her on that. “What was she upset about?” Ladybug said instead.

“She’d missed a competition because of a fractured ankle,” Sabrina said. “But I think it might have been more about people pitying her, and trying to cheer her up rather than leaving her alone.” Guilt made a hard lump in her throat, and she fell silent, shuffling her feet.

Carapace gave her a side-hug. “It’s ok, Brini, I’m sure you were just trying to help,” he whispered. Sabrina smiled half-heartedly, not completely convinced of that fact herself.

Rena peered down over the edge of the building. “We need to get her out of the really deep mist. Maybe I can lure her out with an illusion?”

“That- might not work,” Sabrina said haltingly.

“Why not?”

“Well, if it _is_ Eira,” Sabrina said, “she might still be blind.”

Ladybug’s face twisted into a frown. “I see.” She stared down into the mist, and Sabrina could see the heroine’s brain turning over ideas methodically but coming up empty. All the while the mist was creeping upwards, growing deeper and denser by the minute.

“Maybe your Lucky Charm will give you a clue?” Rena said hopefully.

Ladybug nodded slowly. “It’s worth a try,” she said, drawing back from the edge of the roof and slinging the yoyo upwards. “Lucky Charm!”

Something small and red dropped into her hands, and she stared at it briefly, before looking up at the others. She glanced from Sabrina to Rena, then down at the object again.

“What is it?” Carapace quizzed.

“We need the Bee,” Ladybug said shortly, showing them the black-spotted effigy of the Bee comb in her hands. “I’ll have to go and find Queen Bee. I’ll take the comb from her if she’s been affected by the mist.”

“Who’s going to use it if Bee can’t?” Rena asked. “Sabrina?”

“No.” Ladybug looked at Rena. “You are. I’m sorry, Sabrina, but we need someone experienced to wield the Bee if it’s this important to the battle.” With that, she darted away on her yoyo, quickly vanishing across the rooftops.

“Don’t worry,” Rena said. “If you like, you can _look after_ the Fox for me?”

“Rena, you don’t have to-” Carapace started, before Rena hushed him.

“Shut that trap, shelly. We need all the help we can get with Chat and Bee missing, and she did well enough this morning. When Ladybug gets back, I’ll go and swap transformations and bring Sabrina my Miraculous. Just don’t lose it, OK? I’d really miss my little foxy furball.”

“I get that,” Sabrina murmured, and Rena looked a little embarrassed as Carapace glared at her.

Ladybug’s earrings were down to their last spot by the time she returned, the golden Bee comb clutched in her hand next to the Lucky Charm mimic. “As I thought,” she told them. “She was completely out of it. I have to go and recharge my transformation, OK? Be right back.” She pressed the comb into Rena’s gloved palm and swung away out of sight. The rooves she had to land on were growing sparse now, barely poking out above the rising tide of mist.

“Be right back,” Rena echoed, jumping down into the belltower. There was a flash of orange light, a muffled conversation, then a blaze of yellow light, and then Rena reappeared, now clad in yellow and black stripes with her hair loose and coiffed, streaked with gold. The fox-tail necklace dangled from her fingers, and an orange kwami with long ears and a large fluffy tail came flitting after her.

“Hello, Sabrina,” it said in greeting. “I’m Trixx.”

“Hello,” Sabrina responded.

Rena (?) passed the necklace over to Sabrina. “‘Let’s pounce’ to transform,” she said quickly. “Mirage for an illusion, though if this akuma is who you said then that might not be much use. You can totally hit things with the flute, though.”

Carapace took the pendant and unhooked the chain, carefully fastening it around Sabrina’s neck. “You don’t have to do this,” he reminded her gently. “You can just go chill with Trixx and sit this out. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“Excuse me?” Trixx butted in, narrowing his eyes at Carapace. “I would rather be involved, thank you.”

"No, I want to help.” Sabrina lowered her voice, looking down into the churning mist. “I feel kind of responsible for this one.”

Carapace smiled crookedly. “All right. Go ahead, then.”

“Trixx, let’s pounce,” Sabrina recited; the feeling of the transformation was again similar but somehow different. At least this time she had ears again, and a tail; looking down, what she could see looked actually quite similar to Cavalier’s costume. But again, it just didn’t feel quite right; the ears were too tall, the flute’s weight not sitting comfortably on her hip like the boomerang had. She pulled it off to look at it, at which point Ladybug arrived back.

“All right,” Ladybug said, glancing over the three of them with no visible reaction to Sabrina’s new transformation. She pointed at Rena(?) first. “You’re Bee.” She pointed at Sabrina. “You’re Fox. We don’t have time to mess with names, the mist is rising.”

“So what’s the plan?” Bee asked.

Ladybug looked thoughtful. “We have to drive her out of the mist,” she said. “Maybe the Swarm clones are immune to the mist?”

“Gotcha,” Bee said. “Swarm!” Around 8 clones of her appeared in a bright yellow flash. Bee furrowed her brow. “Whoa. This is weird.”

“Just send one down there and let’s see what happens,” Ladybug ruled. Bee frowned, concentrated hard- and all of the clones jumped off the tower.

“I said one!”

“Sorry! This is confusing!”

The clones vanished into the mist. “OK,” Bee said. “They’ve landed.” She narrowed her eyes. “Wait- there’s something-” She yelped, and swung her arms out like she was holding a bat, stumbling back. “Yeah, that’s a Mayura monster all right,” she grumbled once she’d recovered. “But the mist doesn’t seem to be affecting the clones. Not much, at least.”

“That’s good,” Ladybug said. “Have them head quietly towards the centre. Maybe they can ambush the akuma.”

Bee winced and flinched back again. “Not if this silver lizard thing keeps going for them!” she complained. She swiped at the air. “Get off!”

“Focus,” Ladybug said nervously. “We don’t have a lot of time left.”

The mist was only about a metre below the place they stood now, swirling ominously. Helplessly, Carapace and Fox looked at each other.

“Maybe we should take our chances in the mist?” Carapace asked. “Maybe it won’t affect us, or at least not quickly, if we’re transformed.”

“That’ll be a last resort,” Ladybug said firmly.

“Another Lucky Charm?” Carapace suggested.

“Not until I have to. There won’t be anywhere left for me to recharge again.”

“What happened to the last one?”

“Disappeared when I dropped my transformation,” Ladybug said.

“But,” Fox ventured. “If you’d used Miraculous Ladybug with it, wouldn’t the mist have reset, at least?”

Ladybug blinked. “I… don’t know. I’ve never used the cure before an akuma was defeated.”

“Is it worth trying?” Carapace asked. “If it did clear the mist, it’d give us a window of attack on the akuma.”

Ladybug bit her lip. “Let’s try the Swarm ambush first.” She looked at Bee, who was squinting now.

“I’m losing contact with the clones,” Bee warned. “I think the mist is getting to them. They still can’t even see the akuma.”

“All right.” Ladybug started pacing. “We’ll have to try it. But we’ll have to defeat the akuma quickly afterwards, because I can’t repair any more damage she does after I use the cure. Where would you guess the akuma and plume are?”

“The cane has to have the akuma,” Bee said. “That was where the mist was coming from.” She flinched again. “All right, Ladybug, I’m pulling the clones out of the mist. We might need them and I’m about to lose them.”

Seven clones came flying out of the mist; a silver shape sprang up to snatch one of them out of the air, but the others made it back, crowding onto the top of the tower.

“Cool, I kinda forgot QB could fly,” Bee muttered.

“Be ready,” Ladybug warned them. “Lucky Charm!”

Something very tiny fell into her hand. She looked down at it, before smiling and tossing it back into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” she called, and the glittering wave of ladybugs went to work.

Sure enough, the mist was swept away; the figure of the akuma was revealed in the middle of the courtyard, clad in silver and hovering just above the ground. Nearby, a large metallic lizard-like creature screeched and scrabbled on the cobbles, struggling towards the new pool of mist already starting to form from the bottom of the akuma’s cane.

Carapace, Bee and all her clones sprang down towards the figure, and Fox followed them. Carapace threw himself onto the furious lizard-thing, pinning it down, and Bee went straight for the cane.

The akuma gave a confused, angry yell as the swarm clones lifted her off the ground to immobilise her, waving her cane furiously, and inadvertently Bee got a faceful of the mist as she tried to pull the cane away.

“Bee!” Ladybug called worriedly, touching down nearby. Bee stumbled back, letting go of the cane and rubbing her eyes.

“No no no,” she mumbled. “I shouldn’t be… I shouldn’t…”

“Ladybug, watch out!” Carapace called out in alarm as the Swarm clones flickered out, and the akuma pushed herself back onto her feet. Her left ankle was wrapped tight in a silver shackle, and her cane continued to spew mist, now gathering in a faint cover across the ground again. Carapace was forced to let go of the lizard and scramble to his feet to keep his face away from the mist; it wriggled away, gliding through the mist to coil around the akuma’s feet.

Ladybug struck with her yoyo, but the lizard jumped to intercept, clamping onto the red circular weapon. It didn’t let go, even as Ladybug yanked on the string.

“Is that you, Ladybug?” the akuma shrilled. “I’m Pessi-Brume, and one way or another, I’m going to get your Miraculous. I already have your little pet’s.”

Fox saw Ladybug falter. “What?”

Pessi-Brume grinned cruelly and opened her palm; a black ring rested there. “Poor kitty fell into my mist too quickly,” she taunted. “He came around to my way of thinking after that. Just didn’t see any point in carrying on the fight. Just handed it over and wandered away like the little stray he is.”

“Ladybug, don’t listen to her!” Carapace pressed. “It’s a fake ring, it has to be!”

The mist was reaching knee level now. The lizard was growing restless, but it didn’t leave Pessi-Brume’s heels, still gripping Ladybug’s yoyo. Fox held her breath. She hadn’t revealed her presence yet. If she was quiet…

“Oh well, at least he got to keep his identity,” Pessi-Brume said sweetly. “If I can’t see, Hawk Moth can’t either. Same goes for _my_ pet and his mistress. So this is your chance to give up your Miraculous and slink off into retirement, rather than your face being exposed to Paris.” She nudged the lizard with her shackled foot. “But make no mistake, Ladybug, my little helper can still feel your movements. He’ll warn me if you get near.”

Ladybug seemed stunned. Bee was still dazedly muttering, and Carapace was eyeing the lizard nervously. Turning her head, Fox waved for Ladybug’s attention.

Ladybug snapped out of it, looking at Fox. Worry for her partner was obvious in her eyes, but she narrowed them as Fox gestured towards the akuma. Then her blue eyes brightened, and she nodded slowly, shifting her feet so that the lizard locked on to her. It started tugging on the yoyo, trying to drag Ladybug down to the level of the mist, but Ladybug planted her feet and continued her dialogue with the akuma, who seemed quite happy to rant. Fox realised that both of them were stalling for time; Pessi-Brume until the mist was high enough again, Ladybug until Fox could get to the akuma.

Step after careful step, Fox started creeping towards Pessi-Brume. She hesitated each time the lizard fidgeted, but kept going. The fox Miraculous seemed to have given her an extremely light step, and with Bee’s muttering and Ladybug’s retorts at the akuma the tiny sound of her movement was covered.

When she was standing close enough to touch the poised akuma, Fox unclipped her flute. Raising it like a bat, she sucked in a quiet breath and swung it down, striking the cane where Pessi-Brume was leaning on it. Not hard enough. It buckled, clearly weakened by the presence of the butterfly, but didn’t break; and now Pessi-Brume knew she was there.

“Sneaking around, are you?” she demanded, swinging her cane towards Fox. Fox blocked the strike with her flute, but the akuma was strong, and pressed closer. She heard Carapace calling worriedly as the hiss of the escaping mist came close to her face; she felt its coolness as she inhaled.

_Stop. Why are you even bothering?_

That was not her comforting inner voice. It was a different one, morbid and grey.

_What kind of question is that? You're helping Ladybug to defeat this akuma! Get that negativity out of here._

That was the voice she remembered. The choking grey monologues from the mist fell back in the face of its glow, but they were growing in number as Fox kept breathing the mist. With a surge of strength and desperation, Fox pushed back against the akuma, moving the mist away from her face.

Pessi-Brume scowled. Fox could hear Carapace and Ladybug wrestling with the lizard thing nearby. She ducked a swipe of the cane, and glanced across to Bee. She was still babbling. There would be no help from her. She parried another strike. The cane was weakening with every blow, but she kept getting wisps of the mist; time would run out for both of them soon. It was just her, against the akuma she had had a hand in creating.

 _You can do this!_ It was Pannu’s voice so clearly for a moment. _I believe in you._

Swallowing down her fear and guilt as she met Pessi-Brume’s harsh clouded gaze, Fox went on the offensive, striking with the flute. Pessi-Brume blocked it, so Fox pressed hard on the flute, bringing it perpendicular with the cane. They swayed for a long moment, neither backing down, until finally, weakened as it was, the cane snapped like a twig and Pessi-Brume fell backwards onto the ground. Fox pinned her wrist to the ground with her boot, and leaned down to take the black ring from the akuma’s grip. She wasn’t sure if it really was Chat’s ring, but it certainly looked convincing. She glanced over to see the butterfly crawling from the cane, and turned her head to warn Ladybug.

The lizard launched itself at Fox’s face then, but Carapace jumped between them, only to be toppled by the creature’s weight. Ladybug sprinted over, ripping off Pessi-Brume’s ankle shackle, and a blue plume puffed free to join the purple butterfly; she scooped them both up with the yoyo, releasing the white forms a second later.

The lizard gone, Carapace struggled to his feet as Pessi-Brume slumped onto her side and the dark energy washed away to reveal Eira lying there. Quickly, Fox knelt down next to her and helped her to stand, giving her back the snapped cane and the crutch from where they lay on the ground.

“What’s going on?” Eira whimpered. “Where am I?”

“You were akumatised,” Fox said gently. “Everything’s okay now though, I promise, although your cane is broken.” She beckoned to Carapace subtly, and passed him the black ring. He looked down at it, shock glinting in his eyes.

“Ladybug,” Carapace said, his tone uncertain but regretful. “I’m pretty sure this is the real one.”

Ladybug sighed, her expression pained and her earring beeping shrilly. “You know who he is, don’t you, Carapace?” she asked. “Would you mind taking it back to him?” She put a hand to her ear. “And making sure the other Miraculouses end up where they belong? I’ll take Queen Bee’s now and make sure it gets back to her.”

“Will Rena be ok?” Carapace asked. She was still mumbling to herself, stumbling around in the now dissipating mist.

“Pollen should absorb the effects with no harm to himself when she detransforms,” Ladybug said. “That Lucky Charm was right, we definitely needed the Bee Miraculous for this fight, after all.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Carapace pressed.

“I was just getting to that.” Ladybug raised her eyebrows at him. She looked over at Fox. “You were really indispensable today, Fox. We couldn’t have done it without you. I won’t hesitate to call on you again if we need you.”

Carapace was beaming, but when Ladybug said nothing more he looked a little put out. Fox smiled at Ladybug, then gave him a warning glance. _Don’t push it._ She turned back to Eira, who had been listening nervously.

“What did I do?” Eira looked down at her hand. “Your voice- It’s Sabrina, right? I- remember a few things. Did I- surely I didn’t really take-”

“It’s OK,” Fox soothed. “I have something I need to do, but I’ll be back in just a minute and I’ll take you home, OK? Then we can talk about it.”

“OK,” Eira said quietly, and she stayed there, leaning on her crutch with her face turned downwards. Fox walked across to Carapace.

“Trixx, let’s…” She paused. Had Rena actually told her the phrase?

“‘Detransform me’ works too,” Carapace said quietly.

Relieved, Fox spoke again. “Trixx, detransform me.”

Unfastening the necklace, she passed it to Ladybug, who smiled at Trixx and led him and Bee around a corner. Moments later, Ladybug departed with the golden comb in hand and Rena came strolling back around the corner of the building, looking none the worse for wear.

“Guess it’s my turn, huh?” she said, gesturing to Eira as she looked at Carapace, still clutching Chat’s ring. “You should be getting that back to its owner, I’m sure he’s going mental about losing it.”

“Actually, I’d like to talk to Eira,” Sabrina whispered. “Would you mind?”

“Won’t she recognise your voice as Fox?” Rena asked doubtfully.

“You could take Wayzz again,” Carapace offered.

“It’ll be fine,” Sabrina said. “I never told her I was a hero, and she recognised my voice already. She won’t know I was ever transformed.”

Rena shrugged. “Fine by me. I should be getting back to my friend, anyway.”

“Will you be ok to get home afterwards?” Carapace asked Sabrina.

“I have legs,” Sabrina said in amusement. “I’ll be fine.”

“Well, bye then,” Rena said. “Good job, by the way. Almost as good a fox as moi.”

“She did great,” Carapace muttered assertively, kissing Sabrina’s temple.

“All right, Nino, you big sap,” Rena punched him lightly in the chest. “Less of the PDA. I’m leaving.” She hopped away over the cathedral roof, and Sabrina looked accusingly at Carapace.

“She knows?”

“Yeah. She figured it out just now, actually. Because of you.”

Sabrina frowned. “Are we being too obvious?”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Carapace shrugged. “One day soon you’ll have a Miraculous too and it won’t be a problem.”

“Carapace-”

“Excuse me,” Eira’s voice came from behind them, tremulous and uncertain. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go home now? Please?”

Sabrina scowled good-naturedly at Carapace as she went back across to Eira. “OK,” she said gently. “Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll answer any questions you have on the way there.”

“Thank you.” There was a long pause. Eira kept her head turned downwards for a long moment. “I’m sorry for how I treated you earlier,” she mumbled. “I was bitter and miserable, but I’m not any more. I’m just… cold.”

“I know what you mean,” Sabrina murmured, trying to keep the sympathy out of her tone. Because she did know; coming to in the hotel lobby with Ladybug and Chat standing over her had been surreal. Vanisher had devoured all of her anger and sadness, leaving a strange void where she wasn’t quite sure what to feel.

Eira gave her an address which was only a few streets from Sabrina’s own home, and they started to walk in the gathering darkness. Eira was apparently full of questions, but reluctant to ask them.

“Did I take Chat Noir’s Miraculous?” she asked first. “I… think I remember someone putting a ring in my hand and walking away.”

“You did,” Sabrina confirmed. “But it’s OK. If you couldn’t see him then Hawk Moth and Mayura couldn’t, so his identity is still safe. And Carapace is on his way to give the ring back to Chat right now. No harm done.”

“Mayura?” Eira furrowed her brow. “That’s right, there was… something crawling around my feet…”

“That was her little protector for you,” Sabrina agreed. “I won’t lie, you were a strong akuma. There was a point where I almost thought Ladybug might not win.”

“So… what happens now?” Eira said nervously, after she had considered Sabrina’s words. “I just slowly forget, or…?”

“You want the truth, right?” Sabrina said softly.

“Please,” Eira asked.

“You dream a lot,” Sabrina murmured. “Almost every night for the first couple of weeks. You get flashes of what your akuma did. While you’re awake, the smallest things remind you. Especially when something happens that reminds you of why it happened in the first place. Then the dreams get less. Mine are once a month, if that, now. I didn’t get rid of my pin, but I did shut it away where I didn’t have to think about it.”

Eira laughed hollowly. “Good job Mum insisted I get a spare cane. And I’m getting my cast changed next week anyway.”

“That might be useful,” Sabrina agreed. “But you’ll probably feel better if you keep the broken cane rather than throw it away. My dad, and my boyfriend, even Chloe… they all kept their akumatised objects somewhere, just hidden. I don’t know how it is with the plumed items. You’d have to speak to people who had them as well.”

The click of Eira’s crutch punctuated their steps for a few minutes then as Eira apparently fought to remember the last hour. “So I was using, like… negative-feeling mist, right? What was my name?”

“Pessi-Brume, I think.”

Eira snorted, despite herself. “Are you serious? Is that a _pun?_ ”

“I think so.” Sabrina smiled. “Do you like puns?”

Eira twirled a bit of her hair around her finger. “Maybe a little. Don’t tell Seph. She hates them.”

“Would she pull your hair out?” Sabrina said lightly.

“Oh. Yeah, that’s her favourite threat.” Eira smiled then, a little. “She takes a while to warm up to people, but she’s good at reading them. She must have seen something in you to start discussing me with you earlier.” There was a little edge in her voice.

“I’m sorry about that,” Sabrina said again. “I- I didn’t consider how you were feeling before I started trying to push positivity onto you.”

“Seph was right, I don’t appreciate stuff like that,” Eira told her. “But I kind of get it. You probably would have been better if you’d backed off when I first snapped at you, though.”

“Noted,” Sabrina said quietly. Remembering something Perry had said earlier, she took a brief stab in the dark, her tone light and teasing. “So things that you do appreciate are puns, and Lane making stupid jokes about his name.”

“Pffft,” Eira stopped in her tracks, propping her elbow up on her crutch so she could wave her hand dismissively, though she’d definitely started to go a little pink. “That’s not all the things I like. I also like… hmm… apricots. And the sound of rain.” She turned her head towards Sabrina. “Seph told you too much, didn’t she?”

“No,” Sabrina said. “She gave me a hint, at best. I just noticed, and you kind of confirmed it just now.”

“Ugh.” Eira kept walking. “Are we nearly at my house? I was just akumatised, I don’t need to take this.”

“I’m just teasing,” Sabrina said anxiously. “And he’s nice, I’m not being mean about it.”

“I know.” Eira shrugged. “It’s fine, you don’t have to walk on eggshells around me. I blew up at you earlier, I get it, but now… I almost feel better. Back to normal. Well. Except for, you know.” She wiggled her bound ankle carefully.

“We’re nearly there now,” Sabrina promised as they turned the corner onto the right street. “If you need to, though, you can ask me more questions at school tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” Sabrina led Eira up the path to the house, and Eira reached up to ring the doorbell. “Mam’s going to flip,” Eira muttered.

“It wasn’t your fault, it was Hawk Moth’s,” Sabrina reasoned.

“No, I’m late for dinner.”

Footsteps frantically approached the door and then it flew open; a large dark-haired woman threw her arms around Eira. “I was so worried!” she scolded. “Where have you been? And who’s this? Don’t you know there was a huge akuma attack going on? And what happened to your cane?”

“About that,” Eira said nervously. “Can we go in and talk? I’m cold.”

Clucking, the woman bustled back into the house, and Eira paused on the threshold. “Well, talk to you on Thursday, I guess.”

“Is your friend coming in too?” the woman called. “I’m making tea.”

“No, Mam!” Eira called back. “She has to get home!”

“Well say bye and come in then! You’re letting all the heat out! Your Mum and I pay for that!”

“Fine!” Eira started to close the door. “Bye,” she said.

“I hope you have a good night,” Sabrina said quietly, knowing full well she wouldn’t. Eira grimaced, then shut the door with a click.

Sabrina wandered home after that. Her father was almost as relieved as Eira’s Mam had been; Sabrina gathered that almost the whole city had been swamped in mist before it was swept away. Nino texted her that the ‘thing’ was back with its rightful owner, and she smiled, before settling on the sofa next to her father to watch TV. In one day, she’d wielded not one but two Miraculouses, helped defeat two akumas, possibly made a couple of new friends… and Nino loved her. The fatigue finally catching up to her, she fell asleep with her father’s arm wrapped around her, a small smile on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this chapter ended up so much longer than I intended. Anyway the ANGST starts soon so... be prepared.
> 
> Yes that was a reference to The Mist.
> 
> (Brume=Mist by the way. So she's literally Pessi-Mist. Ha ha I'm so funny).


End file.
